Love's not a competition but I'm winning
by suri29
Summary: She went to sleep happy, completely unaware that she would soon be caught in a bit of a love triangle that would eventually become more of a love square. Dramione, post-hogwarts, EWE?
1. More than friends?

**New Story! :D before you ask, I haven't completely given up on Better in time, I'm slowly writing a new chapter for it. But as I was writing, I got an idea for this story and I just couldn't help myself so I wrote it and I wanted to know if it was worth writing. So I hope you like it :)**

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><p>Hermione walked down the streets of Manhattan with every bit of confidence she didn't have as a young girl at Hogwarts. She was quite a sight to behold; she was no longer the plain, bushy haired girl that was often teased for being as they said "a know-it-all". In her place now stood a beautiful girl that stood at a respectable 5'9" with tan silky soft skin, loose soft chocolate curls that fell well below her shoulders and a body that most women could only dream of having.<p>

After the war Hermione left England and went to Australia to find her parents and restore their memories. It took her almost two weeks but in the end she was successful. After she restored their memories, her parents insisted that she stay with them if only for a little while longer so they could make up for lost time. She stayed with them for a little over six months; although she was very happy and comfortable with her parents, she wanted to try something new so she packed her belongings, and decided to travel to New York City.

Of course there were many objections from Harry and much of the Weasley clan (save one particular Weasley) when they learned of her plans to move to the states but Hermione stood her ground and told them that while she loved them and would miss them all very much, nothing and no one would change her mind. And indeed no one did because here she was two years later, still living in Manhattan and still loving every minute of it.

She continued walking down West 50th Street until she came upon her destination. Toloache was a gourmet Mexican restaurant and one of Hermione's all-time favorite places to eat; she went up to the hostess and was immediately taken up to the second level and led to a booth where a very handsome man sat waiting for her.

"There you are _Tesoro_, I was wondering when you would show up" said the handsome man as he stood up to kiss Hermione on the cheek. Hermione returned the greeting before sitting down beside him.

"Sorry I'm late Dom, I was doing a bit of shopping" she said as she drew his gaze to a pile of bags next to her making him laugh.

"Only a bit? I can only imagine how many bags you'd have if you spent a whole day shopping" he replied teasingly.

"I hope you don't mind but I've already ordered for both of us, I figured you wouldn't object to having our usual favorites, tortilla soup and chicken enchiladas" he told Hermione.

Hermione smiled and shook her head, "not at all."

Dominic Moretti was an Italian wizard whom Hermione met shortly after her arrival in Manhattan over two years ago. He was about 6'3", had raven black hair and what Hermione believed to be the most gorgeous honey colored eyes she'd ever seen. He lived not too far from Hermione's home and they'd become very close in time they'd known each other and were always spending their free time in each other's company as was the case tonight.

To anyone who saw the two walking down the street, drinking coffee at Starbucks or even having dinner as they were tonight, they would immediately think the two were a couple and a very lovely couple at that. In fact, whenever they were together Hermione always noticed the jealous glares she would receive from any woman who'd walk past them, just as Dominic noticed the hard stares men sent his way after they not so subtly checked Hermione out.

The truth was that Hermione and Dominic were most certainly not a couple and did not mean to appear as a couple but they'd grown quite comfortable together it came as second nature to them to be so close and affectionate when they were together, be it in public or in the privacy of their respective homes. Besides, Hermione just didn't feel that way about Dominic; the same however could not be said about Dominic's feelings for Hermione.

Dominic stared at Hermione, admiring her beauty and wishing so very much that she could be his, knowing it was just wishful thinking.

From the moment he met her when they struck a conversation while art gazing at the Guggenheim about Picasso and Marie Therese, he thought her to be quite beautiful. He saw in her a classic natural beauty that was rarely seen in Manhattan. It started as a bit of a crush but as time passed and the more he got to know her, it definitely started to develop as something more; not that he would ever dream of saying anything to her. As much as it pained him to admit it, he knew very well that Hermione did not and would probably never return his feelings so instead he settled for being her best friend, as long as he could be around her.

"Dom?"

"Huh?" Dominic was taken out of his trance by Hermione's voice.

"Are you alright Dom?" asked Hermione, looking at him oddly.

Dominic shook his head, "I'm fine, I was just letting my mind wander" he replied giving her a weak smile; hoping that it would be a sufficient explanation for her to drop the subject.

Hermione wasn't convinced that was what was wrong with her best friend but decided not to push it; if he wanted to tell her about it later, he would.

Their dishes arrived and they talked while eating, discussing each other's days and making plans for the coming weekend.

Once they finished their dinner they shared a delicious Flan for dessert before leaving the restaurant hand in hand as they always did. Dominic led Hermione to the corner of 8th avenue and West 50th Street where he hailed a taxi for them.

The night was still young and Dominic had gotten tickets to Hermione's favorite musical, _Wicked_, but she obviously didn't want to go to the show with a handful of bags plus it didn't start for another hour and a half so they told the taxi driver to head toward Hermione's penthouse on Duane Street in the Tribeca neighborhood.

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><p>Harry sat behind his desk in his office staring at a picture of him and Hermione taken after the war, before she left for Australia to rescue her parents. He hadn't seen her since the anniversary ball when she came to England to help her parents settle back into their home as they were permanently moving back from Australia and of course to attend the ball as she had been vital to the downfall of Voldemort.<p>

He missed his best friend dearly but knew she was happy in her new life and he would not take her out of it because he was selfish and wanted her back in London. When she came back to London briefly to tell everyone that she was going to live in the states, he tried everything he could think of to get her to stay but much to his dismay, she would not sway from her decision. They were in constant communication but to him it was not the same as being able to see her every day.

"Harry?"

Harry came out of his trance and looked up, his emerald green eyes meeting cool gray eyes.

"What is it Draco?"

Draco stepped further into Harry's office, making sure to close the door behind him and cast a wandless silencing spell so as no one could eavesdrop on their conversation.

"As you may have heard, now that my father has passed, I am to take over as head of Malfoy Industries."

"Yes, yes, everyone in the whole bloody wizarding world knows that the famous Malfoy heir has now become the head of Malfoy Industries and is now possibly the richest man in Europe" snapped Harry, wishing he'd just get to the point.

"Well the first big business deal we have now that I am head is to take place in New York City."

That last part certainly caught Harry's attention, who was now staring intently at Draco.

Draco smirked knowing now that he had Harry's undivided attention.

"I, and pretty much everyone around you, know that you've been pining away for Granger ever since she left."

"I have not-"

"Spare me from whatever pathetic excuse you were going to make, you know it's true. And while everyone may not see it or maybe the refuse to see it, I know that the reason you pine for her is not just because she's your _best friend_."

Harry immediately stood up and strode over to Draco with an angry expression on his face.

"I don't know whatever gave you that idea but-"

Draco held up a hand making Harry stop talking but he continued to glare at the Malfoy heir.

"Again, spare me your lame excuses because I, unlike everyone else around you, pay very close attention to details. I saw the way you looked at her at the anniversary ball, you practically had smoke coming out of your ears when you saw her gliding around the dance floor with Viktor Krum much like she did during our fourth year. And you were positively beaming when she was dancing with you; not to mention the fact that you were a little too happy at the fact that she ignored and avoided the weasel all night."

Harry was dumbstruck, how was it that Malfoy had picked up on all of that? He had tried so hard to keep his emotions in check and keep a poker face on so as no one would notice.

"I-"

Draco smirked once more; over the past two years he and Harry had actually become very good friends, in which time he learned to read Harry like a book. At first he'd figured that Harry simply had a crush on Hermione because whenever they would get together for coffee or lunch and he had a new letter from her, he would go on and on about it with such a silly grin on his face. It wasn't until the ball when he saw them interacting, that he noticed that it was much more than a crush. He also noticed that Hermione was completely oblivious to it but even if she wasn't, it was clear as day that she didn't feel the same.

"You love her." It was a statement, not a question.

"Of course I love her, she's my best friend."

"No"

"No?"

"Your love for her is not the platonic kind that everyone believes you feel for her."

Harry grew crimson, he never expected anyone to find out and certainly not Draco. And if it was even possible, he grew even redder when Malfoy continued to speak.

"That's why you broke it off with the weaselette, isn't it? You knew you wouldn't be happy with her while you still loved Hermione. I'm sure she also figured it out; it would explain why was suddenly so supportive of Hermione leaving. I'm sure she figured you two might still have a chance if Hermione was out of the picture again."

Harry's jaw dropped, he was actually quite surprised at Draco's deductive skills. He'd pieced everything together so perfectly and so quickly with just small details.

"But onto why I originally came here; I was wondering if you would like to come along."

Harry's jaw dropped even further.

"I-I don't know what to say."

"A simple yes or no will suffice."

"It's just-"

"Harry, all it really comes down to is whether or not you are willing to put yourself out there and tell her how you really feel."

"What if she doesn't feel the same" asked Harry meekly

If Draco's deductions had been correct, he already knew she didn't but he certainly wouldn't be the one to tell Harry that.

"Honestly Potter, you faced trolls, giant spiders, dementors and fucking Voldemort himself, on multiple occasions I might add, and you're afraid that some girl won't like you back?" Draco sighed before calmly continuing, "If she doesn't, then at least you will know instead of forever wondering 'What if'. And who knows, even if she doesn't feel the same, you might still find yourself a nice American witch while we're there."

Harry had to be mad to actually be considering Draco's proposal, but he'd also be damned if he didn't agree with him.

Harry sighed heavily before looking at Draco straight in the eyes before slowly saying, "I want to go".

Draco simply nodded and replied, "Well you'd better start packing, we leave tomorrow evening"; with that he turned, lifted the silencing spell and left Harry's office.

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><p>Hermione got ready for bed that night feeling completely elated; she never knew her life could be this perfect. She had amazing friends, a loving family, a career as editor of the beauty department of one of her favorite magazines, a breathtaking penthouse, more money that she knew what to do with and the best part was, it was real.<p>

After going to see _Wicked _with Dominic for what had to have been the 50th time, he took her to Tasti D-lite before hailing a taxi and dropping her off before heading toward his own home.

She went to sleep happy, completely unaware that she would soon be caught in a bit of a love triangle that would eventually become more of a love square.

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><p><strong>Before you ask, look back at the info. No it is not Harmony, its Dramione. I know it may seem like Harmony now but I have every intention of making sure she'll end up with Draco. Anyways, did you like it? :D please review!<strong>


	2. Future Competition

**I was so happy to wake up and find that so many of you had already subscribed to this story and were already adding it to your favorites! I'm glad you all like it. I doubt I need to say this but I will anyways: I don't own HP, not even in my dreams and I am obviously not the brilliant JK rowling so yea. Onto the story! Oh wait one more thing, thank you to CajunWitch and assi for being the first to review. :)**

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><p>Hermione woke up the next morning around 10am with a strange feeling; she wasn't quite sure what it was but it felt to her as if something was coming. She quickly dismissed this, got out of bed and headed to her bathroom to shower. After she got out of the shower she put on a comfortable pair of Victoria's Secret sweatpants, her favorite Victoria's Secret t-shirt and a pair of pink and purple fuzzy socks before heading downstairs to the kitchen.<p>

She had barely turned on her coffee maker when she heard footsteps drawing near to her. She turned around, already knowing who it was even before her chocolate eyes met his honey eyes. Dominic and Hermione each had complete access to the other's home and always at breakfast together on the weekends so she was not surprised when she saw him walking toward the kitchen.

Even in sweats, a t-shirt and a pair of converse Dominic looked incredibly handsome; Hermione always felt bad that she didn't feel more for him. Not to say she wasn't attracted to him, it would be impossible for any woman NOT to be attracted to him, but she wished she felt something more for him romantically. Hermione, as beautiful and as smart as she was; was completely oblivious to his feelings, just as she was Harry's feelings, yet she still felt that Dominic deserved so more from her than just friendship.

"Morning _Tesoro_" said Dominic smiling before he walked over to her and pulled her into a hug.

"Morning Dom" replied Hermione smiling into his chest, "what would like for breakfast?"

"Oh please _Tesoro_, it's my turn to cook so tell me what YOU want for breakfast and go sit down. I'll take care of everything."

"But-"

"_Non voglio accettare un no come risposta_" said Dominic is caring but firm voice.

Hermione huffed; she knew Dominic only spoke Italian to her when he really meant it. In the two years they'd been friends, Hermione had become quite fluent in Italian so she didn't need a translator to know that he'd just said he wouldn't take no for an answer. Dominic could be just as stubborn she was when he wanted to be so Hermione just walked to the other side of the island in her kitchen and sat down as she watched Dominic move expertly around her kitchen, gathering ingredients for breakfast.

He made them each a delicious omelet and chocolate chip waffles from scratch. As was routine for them, they ate breakfast and drank coffee in the kitchen sitting across each other on the island and made plans for the day.

After much debating, they decided to spend the day going around Chinatown, Little Italy and SoHo. Hermione and Dominic both went upstairs to her master bedroom to get dressed for the day. Aside from having full access to each other's homes they also had a whole dresser or two in each other's home used only for the other's clothes and belongings.

Dominic picked out a simple pair of dark denim jeans, a simple white t shirt that looked great against his olive tan skin, and the same pair of chucks that he arrived in. He changed him Hermione's study as it was connected to her bedroom while she went into her closet to change.

When Dominic came out, Hermione was sitting on her bed, already dressed in jeans, a V-neck white top, putting on a pair of purple glitter TOMS.

When Hermione noticed him standing there, she smiled at him and got off her bed before walking over to him.

"You ready to go Dom?"

"_Si amore_"

Hermione walked over to her bedside table and picked up the same beaded cross body bag she'd used during the war, her watch and phone before heading back to Dominic, grabbing his hand and pulling him downstairs and out into the streets of Manhattan.

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><p>Harry sat in a black sedan car alongside Draco as they headed toward a private hangar. The original plan was that they'd leave that evening but as they were taking Draco's private jet, Draco decided he wanted to leave earlier so here they were at 3pm, leaving to New York approximately 5 hours earlier than expected.<p>

Luckily Harry had everything ready and packed as he'd gone straight home to 12 Grimmauld Place after Draco left to pack anything and everything he may need in New York. Draco phoned him later that night to tell him to pack for at least a month long trip as business deals such as the one he was going to deal with took various amounts of time. Harry had no problem with that and basically packed everything he had in his closet; afterwards, Harry owled the Minister and told him he would be taking a two month leave from work. The minister replied with no objections, as they had finally gathered up all the remaining death eaters and some neo death eaters, he had no problems with his head Auror taking a long and well deserved vacation.

He didn't bother telling anyone else his plans, especially not the Weasleys. He knew that if he told even one of them, it would end up getting to Ginny and she would immediately figure out why he'd decided to "vacation" in the states. Needless to say she was still more than miffed at him for leaving her because of "a know-it-all bookworm bitch" as she'd put it the day he broke off their engagement. He had tried to play it off time and time again, saying that he just wasn't sure what he wanted anymore but he knew she didn't buy any of it. She told him that she knew he was in love with Hermione but that he would eventually come back crawling to her because Hermione could never love him like she loved him.

In fact, the day Hermione announced to everyone that she was to head stateside; Ginny had such a smug look on her face. When everyone failed to convince her to stay, she basically rubbed it in Harry's face and speculated that she'd probably met an American while she was in Australia and that was the real reason she was heading to New York. After that, Harry gave up on trying to be friendly or even civil to Ginny, not that it mattered to her as she continued to make snide remarks about Hermione whenever she got the chance and continued to say that she was probably fucking the brains out of some American wizard and that was why she didn't visit England that often, just to spite Harry.

Harry continued to blankly stare out the window until he felt someone nudge him; he turned his head and saw Draco looking at him oddly.

"You alright?"

"Yea, I'm fine. I was just thinking."

"Well come on then, get your arse out of the car. We've arrived at the hangar."

Harry immediately got out of the car boarded the place along with Draco as the workers loaded their luggage.

He sat down in a window seat and fastened his seat belt, feeling more than anxious to take off and arrive in New York. The flight attendant handed both Draco and Harry a flute of champagne and told them that they would be taking off in about 20 minutes, much to Harry's relief. Sure enough, 20 minutes later they were taking off were soon up in the air.

"Staring out at the clouds isn't going to make the time past any faster" said Draco when he noticed Harry staring hard out the window.

Harry turned to look at hi,, "I know" he sighed "it's just, I'm anxious to see her again"

"Anxious or terrified?" asked Draco.

"Both, well more terrified than anxious."

"Why? It's not like she's not the same girl you went to school with. She's still Hermione Granger, Gryffindor Princess, Know-it-all extraordinaire and not to mention your best friend."

"But what if she doesn't feel the same way and ends up telling me that we can't even be friends anymore because it'll be too awkward."

Draco sighed, "Harry listen, even if she doesn't return your feelings, I highly doubt, no, I know she will never stop being your friend."

"But she and Ron don't talk anymore, hell she doesn't even want to be in the same room as him" argued Harry.

"That may be true but it's not because she didn't return his feelings. It was because he didn't feel as strongly for her as she did for him, took her for granted and fucked some slut repeatedly behind her back for almost the entire length of their relationship" retorted Draco.

He knew Draco had a point but it still didn't calm his nerves.

"Just calm yourself Harry, I'll ask the flight attendant to bring you some tea. After you finish it, go behind the curtain, there are two small beds. Go to sleep, it's a 7 hour flight and if you spend the entire time staring out the window, you'll go mad."

Harry opened his mouth to argue but Draco stopped him, "don't even think about arguing Potter, and don't worry, I'll wake you up with plenty of time to spare before we land at JFK."

He nodded curtly not wanting to argue further because he knew Draco would end up winning. Draco summoned the flight attendant and ordered two Seven Blossom teas, one for each of them. He also asked her to prepare both small beds behind the curtain as he also wanted to take at least a small nap during the flight.

As they sat drinking their tea, a thought popped into Harry's mind.

"Draco…"

"What is it?"

"I was wondering, where would we be staying during our time there?"

"Well father usually stayed at the Plaza Hotel or the Empire Hotel whenever he had business in New York City so I was thinking we'd stay at one of those. Why do you ask?"

"Well…" Harry hesitated before continuing "Hermione tells me she owns a quite beautiful penthouse in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan. And she's always going on about how she has all this excess space considering she lives alone."

"So…?" Draco knew where Harry was going with this but hoped he was wrong for once.

"So I was wondering if you might want to stay with her."

Draco nearly choked on his tea, "Did the flight attendant put something in your tea? Look Harry, we might be friends but Granger and I certainly are not and I'm sure she'd rather jump out of this plane without a parachute before letting me stay in her home."

Harry had to laugh at that, "Honestly Draco, you don't give her enough credit. If anything I'm sure she'd say the same thing about you wanting to stay in her home."

"It's all the same to me really, if she'll have me I'd be more than happy to stay at her place and if not well then you can stay with her and I'll just stay at a hotel."

"Alright then perfect, I have her address so when we land I'll ask the driver to take us there."

Draco simply nodded and finished his tea. Shortly after Harry went behind the curtain to sleep while Draco stayed and let his mind wander.

He hadn't seen Hermione since the anniversary ball just like Harry but even then he could hardly remember what she'd looked like then. Had she changed her appearance? When Draco thought of Hermione, he immediately envisioned the bushy haired girl he'd known at Hogwarts. Did she still hate him? Would she hex him into oblivion at the first sight of him?

Draco let all of these questions and so many more swim around in his mind until he started to get dizzy; he shook his head and reminded himself that the war changed everyone. If he could change the views that had been instilled into him since childhood then surely she could not still hate him as much as she did when they were in school.

He sighed heavily before getting up and also heading behind the curtain to take a nap, but not before telling the flight attendant to wake him up at least an hour before they landed.

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><p>Hermione was having a great day, shopping along Canal St with Dom and enjoying the warm August weather.<p>

Just as they were walking past Columbus Park, the weird feeling Hermione had felt in the morning came back.

"_Stai bene Tesoro?_"

"Huh?"

Dominic's hands griping her upper arms brought Hermione back to reality.

"I asked if you were alright" repeated Dominic, growing concerned.

She shook her head before looking up at him, "Sorry Dom it's just that I suddenly got a weird feeling, I'm sure it's nothing though."

He eyed her carefully, "are you sure it's just that? If you want I can hail us a taxi and I can take you home."

She shook her head no, "Don't worry about it Dom, I'm fine. Like I said, I'm sure it was nothing."

"If you're sure…"

Hermione grabbed his hand and squeezed it reassuringly, "I'm sure."

With that, Hermione and Dominic continued on with their day, completely unaware of what, or rather who was about to arrive.

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><p>Several hours later, Harry and Draco arrived at JFK feeling rested and refreshed; as they sat in the suburban that had come to pick them up, waiting for their luggage to be loaded, Harry couldn't sit still.<p>

"Damn it Harry, will you stop fidgeting? You look like you're having a fucking seizure."

With that one remark, Draco stilled Harry and made him turn crimson all at the same time.

Before Harry could say anything in his defense, the driver opened the door to tell them that their luggage had been loaded and asked where he would be taking them.

"142 Duane Street" said Harry in a somewhat quivering voice; the driver nodded, closed the door, climbed into the driver's seat up front and drove away.

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><p>Hermione sat on the couch in her media room as she watched Dominic move around the pool table in front of her as he tried to figure out his next move.<p>

They'd come back from shopping in SoHo about an hour ago and while they certainly didn't want to go out again and walk around carrying various bags, they didn't just want to lay around doing nothing so Hermione suggested they play pool.

Dominic had just made his move, and missed his target horribly, so now it was Hermione's turn. Just as she was about to make her move, she heard the ding of the elevator that led to her penthouse.

"That's odd" she said out loud, more to herself than to Dominic "I'm not expecting anyone."

"Would you like me to check it out?" offered Dominic.

Hermione smiled at her friend but shook her head no, "Thanks Dom but I'll check it out myself."

"Alright but be careful"

Hermione nodded and hid her wand in her back pocket and under her shirt so she could easily reach it if she needed it. She made her way down the stairs to the main level of her penthouse.

As she reached the bottom she nearly slipped on the last step when she saw who was standing in her foyer.

"OH MY GOD" exclaimed Hermione loudly; prompting Dominic to run down the stairs toward her to make sure she was alright.

When he reached her at the bottom of the stairs, he immediately grabbed her hand; "What's wrong _Tesoro_?" he asked a bit frantically.

Hermione turned to him with eyes as wide as saucers and mouth open, she said nothing but her eyes moved to her left drawing Dominic's gaze to the reason Hermione had come down in the first place.

He didn't know it now but standing in front of him was Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter or in other words, his future competition for Hermione's love.

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><p><strong>DUN DUN DUN! :P What's going to happen next? You'll have to wait and see :D Don't forget to review!<strong>


	3. Jealousy all around

**Okay so this chapter is slightly shorter than the first two chapters but not by too much (at least I don't think so). I hope you all like it either way. :)**

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><p>"Hey Mione" said Harry slowly, eyeing Dominic. He wasn't sure who he was but he already didn't like the man, and he certainly didn't like how close he was standing to Hermione.<p>

Hermione just stared at him for a moment, not really believing that he was actually standing in front of her, and with Draco Malfoy of all people.

"Um, hello Harry" said Hermione slowly, still not moving from Dominic's side. She looked over Harry's shoulder and her chocolate eyes met cool gray eyes.

"Hello Draco" she said with a nod.

Draco returned her nod before replying, "Hello Granger."

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Hermione found her voice again; "Wha-What are you doing in Manhattan?" she asked.

"Business deal" answered Draco.

Before Hermione could say something else, Harry spoke up, "Actually Draco's here on a business deal, I sort of just tagged along too se you Mione" he said with a wide smile.

It was then that Dominic decided he didn't Harry Potter; he saw the look in his eyes when he stared at Hermione and he didn't like it one bit.

Draco just stood behind Harry saying nothing and observing Hermione. She was certainly not the bushy haired girl he always remembered from school. She had a hell of a body from what he could tell and even if she didn't have them out on display, Draco could tell she had a great rack.

_Damn, I can only imagine what she'd like in bed, _thought Draco, _Wait, why the fuck am I thinking about her like that? It's Granger for Merlin's sake! She would never even give me a second look, and even if she did Harry's the one who's in love with her. He'd fucking kill me if I ever tried anything._

It was now Draco's turn to eye Dominic; he felt no shame in admitting to himself that Dominic was certainly handsome but he wondered why he was with Hermione in the first place, Harry had said that Hermione lived alone. He suddenly felt something he had never felt before, jealousy.

_Whoa, what the fuck is happening to me? Why am I jealous of him, I don't even know who the fuck he is! Even if I did, I still shouldn't feel jealous, this is Granger we're talking about here, and she's completely off limits! Hell, we're not even fucking friends! _

_Oh but I sure as hell wouldn't mind getting to know her better_, Draco immediately shook his head; that thought had probably come from another head and it wasn't the one that rested on his shoulders.

Hermione invited them into her living room when she noticed the pile of luggage behind them.

"Oh sorry" said Harry when he remembered their luggage "I was sort of hoping we-"

Draco cut him off "If he could stay with you, I'd be perfectly alright with booking a hotel room right now."

Hermione gave the men in front of her a warm smile, "of course you can stay with me, BOTH of you. I have more than enough room to accommodate the two of you, besides the whole reason I bought a three bedroom penthouse instead of a one bedroom loft was so my family and friends wouldn't have to pay to stay at a hotel when they visited Manhattan."

Dominic instantly grew jealous of the two men; while he had full access to her penthouse and could come and go as he pleased, they would be living with her. It was enough to make any man jealous, especially a man who was in love with the brunette beauty, as was Dominic's case.

"Are you sure you don't mind me staying here Granger? Like I said to Harry, I have no problem staying at a hotel."

"I don't mind at all, and it's Hermione, Draco. If you're going to be staying with me, you might as well stop calling me by my surname and get used to calling me by my given name."

"Of course; you're completely right, Hermione. Thank you again, for letting us -_Me_- stay here" replied Draco with a genuine smile.

Hermione returned the smile; it felt a bit odd to her, she didn't think she'd ever seen Draco smile. Now that she thought about it, when he smiled, he looked quite handsome. Well, more handsome than he already was because no matter how much they'd hated each other during school, there was no denying that Draco Malfoy had always been handsome.

"Well then let me show you to your rooms so you can get settled in" said Hermione.

They expected to follow her upstairs but she walked just past them to a hallway that was right behind them to their right. They gathered their luggage and followed her down a small hallway with three doors on the right and two on the left side of the hallway. She told Harry that his bedroom would be behind the door on the right at the end of the hallway and Draco's was the second door on the right. Hermione told them that the first door was a small closet and the two on the left side led to stair case that went up to the roof.

"I'll leave you to get settled" said Hermione to her two guests.

Before Hermione could turn around, Draco called her name.

"Yes?' she asked.

"If you don't mind me asking, what's behind the black padded doors?" he asked.

At the end of the foyer, adjacent to the hallway opening that led to the guest rooms were two big doors with black padded squares covering them. They had immediately caught Draco's eye and he wondered what was behind them. When he asked Hermione what was behind them he half expected her to grow angry and tell him that that room was off limits as if she was hiding something.

But to Draco's surprise, Hermione did the exact opposite; she smiled widely and explained that those doors opened up to her favorite room: her library. She also told him and Harry that they were both more than welcome to go in whenever they wished before finally turning around and leaving them to check out their rooms.

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><p>When Draco closed the door to his room and was left alone with his luggage, his first thought was <em>DAMN<em>. Not that he would ever dream of telling anyone but it had taken all of his will power not to gape and drool over Hermione and her amazing body.

The thing that kept him from doing just that was his mind scolding him for thinking of her in such a perverted way, not because he still held on to that idiotic belief that he was better because he was a pureblood (not that he believed that anymore), but because of Harry. While Draco had already figured out that Hermione didn't return Harry's feelings, he still wouldn't do that to him. Maybe if he was still the same person he'd been before the war, but not now, not after Harry had been so kind to him over the years.

_Besides even if Harry wasn't in love with her, I doubt I'd have a chance with her_, thought Draco, _I wonder who that guy with her was. Her boyfriend? Well it wouldn't surprise me, she's gorgeous; I'd be surprised if she really was single._

Draco sighed, _Whatever, I shouldn't be thinking about her this way, _of course another part of his body thought differently.

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><p>On the other side of the wall Harry was also letting his mind wander. He was feeling a mix of emotions, of course he was happy to see Hermione, but he was also nervous about finally telling her about his true feelings and he was also growing insanely jealous.<p>

_Who the fuck was that guy anyways? _, thought Harry a bit angrily, _and why the fuck was he standing so close to Hermione?_

Harry shook his head, he was getting ahead of himself; for all he knew, he could be Hermione's gay best friend.

He decided that he would worry about the mystery guy later, for now he just threw himself into unpacking and organizing his clothes.

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><p>Hermione and Dominic were in the library, they sat at the wet bar in the corner on stools facing each other. Dominic sat with his forehead against Hermione's and holding her right hand that sat on top of the bar counter; she didn't show it to her guests but the fact that they showed up all of a sudden had been enough to shake her up a bit. So in hopes of calming her down, Dominic took her into the one room that always made her feel better. He sat her down at the bar and made her a crushed velvet, it was a non-alcoholic that they'd come across when they took a spontaneous trip the hard rock café hotel and casino in Chicago. He'd thought about making her a cosmopolitan but he thought it was best not to cloud her mind with alcohol. As he was making her drink he observed her staring blankly at the dark granite counter, if he didn't know her as well as he did he would ask her if she was alright but he knew it was the wrong question and the wrong time to ask anything so he just made her drink, put it in front of her, sat beside her and took her hand in hopes of comforting her. They sat like that for a good hour before the double doors opened and in walked Draco and Harry.<p>

"Oh sorry" said Draco when he realized that they had interrupted a somewhat, if not very, intimate moment between the two.

Harry, who stood behind Draco, was suddenly glad for his position so no one could see that he was just short of going into a jealous rage. He stopped himself of course before he did or said something incredibly stupid. He had to remind himself that he had not yet said anything to Hermione and while they were still best friends, he had no right to attack this guy even if he was too close to Hermione in his opinion.

Hermione looked up at her guest and smiled softly, "Don't worry, we were just talking" she said.

"Talking my ass" muttered Harry and earned an elbow in his ribs from Draco.

"Did you get settled in already?" asked Hermione who had apparently not heard Harry's comment.

"Yes, thank you. The rooms are quite comfortable" answered Draco.

Suddenly a phone pinged; they all immediately reached for theirs before Dominic announced it was his phone that pinged.

After checking his phone he turned to Hermione, "I'm sorry _amore_ but I have to go" he said.

Draco and Harry both felt a ping of jealousy at the name he had for Hermione; if that wasn't bad enough, Draco almost had to hold Harry back after what happened next.

"Don't worry about it Dom, thank you for today" she replied with a warm smile.

Dominic hugged her close to him and as he pulled away, kissed her on the cheek and whispered "call me if you need anything".

Hermione returned the hug and kiss on the cheek, which in Harry's mind lasted a little too long.

As Dominic got up he gave a curt nod to both Draco and Harry before leaving the library and heading toward the elevator.

Hermione didn't notice it but both Harry and Draco felt immense relief when Dominic got into the elevator and left.

"So are you two hungry?" asked Hermione facing her guests.

For once Harry answered before Draco could, "yes actually, I'm starving. We only ate some small snacks during the flight."

"Well I could make some dinner if you'd like or we could always order in" replied Hermione.

"Oh no" said Draco "we've already put you through enough with our unexpected arrival. If you don't mind, I know this great Chinese place not too far, I can call and order food for all of us."

"Are you thinking of Shanghai Gardens?"

"Yes actually, do you know it?"

"It's one of mine and Dom's favorite take out places" replied Hermione smiling widely.

Both Harry and Draco were desperate to find out where Hermione stood with this "Dom" person; were they a couple? Just friends? Friends with benefits?

_Nah, _thought Draco and Harry at the same time, _Hermione's not the kind of girl who would have "friends with benefits"_

Hermione walked past them and out the library, walking toward the kitchen. Both Harry and Draco followed right behind her, questions still swirling in their minds.

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><p><strong>So did you like it? Please review! For once I can actually say I know what I want to happen with this story. Maybe not what will happen specifically in each chapter but I know what I want over all and certain little details and events that are going to happen leading up to the end.<strong>


	4. How to break your best friend's heart

**Hey guys, sorry for not uploading sooner but my sister has been in town and I've been spending most of my time with her since she's already leaving this weekend. This chapter is shorter than I would have liked it to be but I've hit a bit of writer's block. It's not that bad but this is all I could come up with for this chapter, hopefully I'll be able to make up for it in the next chapter.**

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><p>Dominic stood on the roof of his multimillion dollar, three floor penthouse looking out at the view before him. He could not for the life of him stop thinking about Hermione, of course this was not a new concept to him; there were many nights that his thoughts would only revolve around the beautiful witch. The feeling of jealousy, however, was definitely something new to Dominic; while men constantly checked Hermione out and shamelessly flirted with her, he never thought twice about it. He knew those idiots were just wasting their time and at the end no matter where they were, she would be leaving with him and no one else.<p>

But there was something about Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter that he didn't like and it wasn't just the way they looked at Hermione because they weren't the first and certainly not the last guys to look at her like she was a piece of meat. It didn't help that they would be living with her for god knows how long and by the looks of their luggage, they weren't going to be leaving any time soon, much to his dismay.

He had to do something, if he didn't he was sure he'd end up losing Hermione to one of them and he could not and would not let that happen.

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><p>Hermione sat out on her bedroom's terrace sipping an after dinner cocktail and flipping through the latest issue of Cosmopolitan magazine. A few years ago she would have never even touched a Cosmo mag, let alone read it but as the editor of their beauty department she always liked to see how her work turned out.<p>

Harry was in his room taking a shower while Draco was in taking advantage of Hermione's invitation to browse her library. As he perused through her impressive selection of muggle and magical literature, his mind kept wandering to witch upstairs. He didn't know what it was about her that enticed him so, yes she was gorgeous but there was something more about her that drew him to her.

_Stop it! Harry is in love with her! Do you really want to risk losing one of the only real friends you have just so you can try to shag a girl who would first jump off the roof before returning your advances! _Yelled Draco's conscious, quite loudly, making him scowl.

He let out a frustrated sigh as he stopped looking at book titles and just stared blankly at the book filled shelf in front of him. He could not wait for Monday, when he would start spending most of his time at the New York branch of Malfoy Industries working on the deal he'd come to negotiate and seal.

Draco shook his head and continued to browse book titles until he settled for a paperback book entitled "Under a war torn sky" by LM Elliot which looked interesting. He grabbed the book and settled down on the ivory leather couch in front of the fireplace and began to read.

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><p>Hermione now sat in her studyoffice looking over new layouts, possible ads and articles for next month's issue of Cosmopolitan when her phone pinged. She picked it up and saw that she had a new text from Dominic; _**I need to talk to you. Can I come over?**_ She found the message a bit odd, _if he needed to talk to me why didn't he do it earlier? _Then it hit her that she had guests and realized that he probably didn't want to say anything in front of them.

_**Of course you can come over**_, she replied before returning to her work. A few minutes later she heard a loud 'pop' in her bedroom that made her jump and fall out of her chair. She looked up and found Dominic looking down at her trying not to laugh.

"What are you doing here?"

"I needed to talk to you and you said I could come over" replied Dominic with a cheeky smile.

"Well you could have warned me you were going to apparate you know!" snapped Hermione which only made Dominic chuckle. He finally stretched out a hand for her to take and pulled her back up from the floor.

Hermione took his hand and led him out into her bedroom where they sat on her bed facing each other; "alright, what is so important that it couldn't wait until tomorrow?"

Before Hermione could react, Dominic's lips came crashing down on hers. It wasn't an unpleasant kiss; in fact it was quite sweet. Nothing like the awkward kisses she'd shared with Ron once upon a time, but it was definitely unexpected.

_What's going on! Should I kiss him back? He is insanely attractive but I don't know if I like him romantically. Wait weren't you just thinking this morning that you wanted to offer him more than friendship? Well here's your chance! But what if this ruins our friendship? I don't want to lose him!_

After deciding to ignore her internal conflict, Hermione threw caution to the wind and began to respond to his kisses. The kisses grew more intense by the minute; soon Dominic was pulling her closer to him until she was basically sitting on his lap and Hermione ran her hands over his perfect chest and up until her fingers were lost in his perfect raven black hair.

_Hermione Jean Granger what are you doing?_ Shouted her conscience…loudly, not that she paid any attention as she continued to make out with Dominic.

It wasn't until they heard a loud "OH" that they separated. They looked over to where the noise came from and were met with a very shocked Draco and a crestfallen Harry. Hermione looked slightly horrified while Dominic had a satisfied smirk on his face. _At least now they know that she's MINE_, he thought smugly.

"Sorry" said Draco "we thought we heard an apparition 'pop'. We just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"You're obviously more than okay" added Harry bitterly before turning and storming out of Hermione's room.

Hermione looked after him with a perplexed look on her face.

Draco apologized for Harry and again apologized for barging in before he too turned and left the room, running after Harry; leaving Hermione feeling completely confused.

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><p>Harry ran up the staircase until he reached the rooftop after which he let out angry scream. All of this, coming to New York was for NOTHING! She already had someone.<p>

_FUCK! This is all my fault! If only I'd said something sooner, she would have been kissing ME and not that pretentious arsehole!_ Harry let out another anger filled scream; he absolutely hated himself for having waited so long to tell Hermione that he was in love with her.

"Harry!"

Harry turned around and saw Draco approaching him.

"FUCK!" yelled Harry "She's dating HIM! How could I have been so stupid as to think she'd be single? She's fucking gorgeous! She always has been but I was too fucking afraid to make a move and tell her that I'm in love with her and now it's too late!"

"Harry please, I know you're mad but you need to calm down" said Draco slowly "this won't help you at all."

Harry sighed, Draco was right but he just felt all this anger and frustration bubbling inside of him just thinking about Hermione and Dom kissing.

"I just-"

Draco put up a hand to stop him "I know. I can only begin to imagine the frustration you're feeling right now. But right now I don't think it's the best idea for you to be here, how about we go out for a bit to try and distract your mind."

Harry simply nodded in reply; he agreed that it was not the best idea for him to be there right now, not as long as HE was there. If he did, all hell would break loose, that much was guaranteed.

Draco put his hand on Harry's shoulder and apparated away to an unknown location.

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><p>Hermione could not believe what she'd just heard. Harry was IN LOVE with her? Since when?<p>

After Draco left her room to go after Harry, Hermione politely asked Dominic to leave; it was obvious that her childhood friend was upset so she decided to see what was wrong. Dominic left reluctantly but finally left when Hermione promised to call him later on. Once he was gone, Hermione rushed up the stairs until she reached the door that opened out onto the roof but didn't go through it when she heard Draco and Harry talking. Now she wished she'd just let him cool off instead of following him onto the roof.

She felt horrible; she could only begin to imagine how Harry must have felt when he saw her practically straddling Dominic on her bed.

_You idiot! How could you not have seen it all these years!He came to New York to tell you that he loves you and what did you do, you make out with another man in front of him!_

Taking comfort in the fact that she was alone, Hermione made her way to her living room before yelling out "FUCK!"

After letting out her frustration, Hermione slumped down to the floor and sat there for Merlin knows how long until she heard her phone ring, it was a call from Dominic.

Not wanting to talk to him, she turned her phone off and threw it across the room where it crashed against the wall.

She slowly got up off the floor and walked to her bedroom where she fell on her bed and pulled out a photo album from her bedside table. It contained pictures of all the memories she'd created with Harry, Ron and the rest of the Weasley clan over the years. She looked through the pictures and felt her heart breaking. She'd never seen it until now, but there it was a clear as day, the way Harry looked at her; it was the look of someone in love. Not even Ron had looked at her that way when they were together.

Hermione had never felt so stupid in her whole life, how could she have missed something like this for so long?

She put the album back in her bedside table and got under the covers, wishing this was all a bad dream knowing that unfortunately it wasn't.

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><p><strong>So how was it? like I said I know it's short but I'll make up for it in the next chapter (hopefully). Please don't forget to review, tell me what you like, what you don't like. Constructive criticism is always welcome :)<strong>


	5. Alone

**Alright so my sister left on Friday and as soon as she left I started working on this chapter. I thought that after she'd left I'd have more time to write...yea that's not gonna happen. Turns out my nephew is having his first communion sometime next week and mom insists on going but of course she also insists that I go with her. No big right? wrong. We're going to Mexico..yea Mexico. For those of you that read my fic "The Voice" and read the A/N about me going to visit my grandparents, it's basically the same thing. We're going to the same little town I went to before because that's where both my sisters now live (it's their husbands faults). The point is, I won't have internet therefore I won't be able to upload anything. SO since we're not leaving until Friday I will try to write as many chapters as possible and upload them before then. And I'm sure I'll write while I'm over there too so you all will have something to look forward to when I come back. anyways enough of that, onto chapter 5.**

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><p>When Harry finally felt his feet on firm ground he opened his eyes and was astounded by what he saw. He stood in the driveway of a beautiful two story Mediterranean style villa; he couldn't tell their exact location but it was more than obvious that they were no longer in the city.<p>

"Where are we?" he asked Draco who looked completely calm and seemed familiar with this place.

"We're in Bridgehampton, New York" replied Draco "this was a summer home my father bought before the war. I've spent every summer here ever since the war ended along with mother before she decided to permanently move into our villa in Tuscany."

Before Harry could ask any more questions, Draco started walking toward the front entrance; not wanting to be left alone outside in a place he knew NOTHING about, he quickly caught up with him and went inside the multimillion dollar home.

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><p>Hermione woke up in the middle of the night gasping for air, she'd just had the most bizarre dream; she'd made out with Dominic and found out that Harry was in love with her. She looked around her empty bedroom when she remembered what had happened earlier and realized that it hadn't been a dream.<p>

She sighed sadly and let her head fall back onto her pillow. How the hell did things get this fucked up in just one day?

First she made out with Dominic then she found out that Harry was in love with her. What was next? Would Draco confess his undying love for her over breakfast?

She shook her head; that was impossible; Draco was the last person who would fall in love with her…right?

She let out a frustrated sigh before she let herself fall back to sleep, if only for a few hours more.

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><p>Dominic couldn't sleep at all; his mind kept going back to those few glorious moments in Hermione's bedroom before those two idiots walked in.<p>

He involuntary scowled at the memory, after Harry and Draco left the room he tried to kiss Hermione again but she pushed him away and asked him to leave. Honestly he was a bit pissed that she was choosing to go after Harry than stay with him but he kept his mouth shut; he knew she'd pretty much throw him out and not speak to him for days if he had voiced his thoughts.

So he simply left but not before she promised to call him later; a promise she broke. He tried calling her earlier but she didn't answer; when he tried calling again, it went straight to voicemail meaning she'd turned her phone off. Needless to say he was a bit put off by that, he'd even thought about (literally) popping over to check on her but it was late and if she'd managed to talk to Harry, she probably wouldn't have wanted him there.

He let out a frustrated groan, everything was perfect until Harry Fucking Potter and Draco Sodding Malfoy came into the picture! He and Hermione were doing just fine; in fact they more than fine, their lives were damn near PERFECT before they showed up.

But there was no point in getting worked up over this, especially in the middle of the night, so Dominic willed himself to fall asleep, albeit it wasn't a peaceful sleep but sleep nonetheless. Tomorrow or rather later today would be a different, preferably better, day than yesterday and would bring another opportunity to be with Hermione…who would hopefully be alone.

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><p>Harry woke up around 10am in only his boxers and not really knowing where he was; all he knew was that he certainly wasn't at Hermione's penthouse. Suddenly anger and sadness flooded through him as he remembered last night's events, he couldn't get the image of Hermione and Dom kissing out of his head. It was then that he also remembered that Draco had taken him to his family villa in Bridgehampton after his little episode on the roof of the penthouse.<p>

He looked around at his surroundings; it was a very simple yet beautiful room. The walls were white and unadorned except for the wall opposite of the bed he lay in that had a plasma TV mounted on it. The bed he lay in, while extremely comfortable, was not extravagant either; it was a queen sized bed with a yellow and ivory padded headboard and cream colored bedding.

The room gave off a very calming vibe and for a moment Harry considered just going back to sleep and not leaving the room all day but his plan was ruined when his stomach growled loudly. He hadn't eaten since yesterday afternoon when Hermione ordered Chinese food for them from Shanghai Gardens. He got out of bed and put on his clothes that had been neatly folded at the end of the bed before slowly leaving his room, searching for Draco and food, whichever he found first.

After a few minutes of wandering around the house he found Draco outside sitting at a white glass table filled with food, by a large pool drinking coffee.

"There you are Harry" said Draco when he spotted his friend "I was wondering when you'd be joining me for breakfast." He motioned for Harry to join him at the table.

"Did you sleep well?" he asked before taking a bite out of his toast, as Harry approached him and sat down opposite of him at the table.

Harry simply nodded as he poured himself a bit of coffee and filled his plate with food.

They ate their breakfast in comfortable silence as they looked out onto the bay that surrounded the villa.

It wasn't until they had finished their breakfast and their plates were taken from them by a couple of house elves, leaving only the coffee set that Draco finally broke the silence.

"You know, maybe things didn't happen like you think they did" he said slowly.

Harry snorted as he took another sip of his coffee, "oh yea because her lips just fell onto his as she 'accidentally' fell onto his lap" he said bitterly.

"Harry please, for all you know he could have forcibly kissed her" replied Draco

He glared at his platinum blond friend, "well if he did, she didn't put up too much of a damn fight, now did she? And why are you defending her in the first place, aren't you two like mortal enemies or some shit like that?"

Draco shook his head, "First of all, I'm just trying to give her the benefit of the doubt, which unless I'm mistaken, is something YOU always do. And second, you don't really have a right to mad at her."

Harry couldn't believe what he was hearing! Draco knew exactly how he felt about Hermione and how he'd felt when he saw her kissing Dom so how dare he say something like that!

"I know what you're thinking" said Draco "and the reason I said you can't really be mad at her is because SHE doesn't know how you feel about her. For all she knew you really had just come to New York to visit her because you missed having her around, not to declare your undying love for her. She was completely innocent in all this and like you yelled out last night, did you really think that she'd be single, just waiting for you to make a move?"

Draco's words were like a bucket of cold water thrown in his face, he was completely right. It had been obvious to Harry that Hermione was oblivious to his feelings for her and it would have stupid of him to think that she'd remain single these past two years pining for him just as he had for her.

Harry laughed bitterly as he realized something.

"What is it?" asked Draco in a curious voice.

Harry shook his head, "it's just that when Hermione first moved to the states, Ginny would constantly say that the reason she'd moved to New York was because she'd met a hot American wizard in Australia. And even over Sunday dinner at the Burrow she'd snidely say that at that very moment Hermione was probably shagging the brains out of her hot American boyfriend. I'd always thought she only said that to piss me off since she knew that I'd broken off our engagement because I was in love with Hermione; now I'm not so sure, maybe there had been some truth to Ginny's snide comments."

"Oh come on Harry, you don't really believe that do you? If that had been the reason she'd decided to move to the states I'm sure she would have told you. "

Harry snorted, "I'm not so sure anymore, I mean in all the time we'd been writing back and forth to each other not ONCE did she mention Dom. And don't even think about suggesting that maybe they'd only met recently because by the looks of things they've known each other for quite some time" he replied a bit angrily.

Draco sighed; he knew he couldn't win this argument. He was barely convincing himself of what he was saying.

To be honest, Draco was angry as well but not so much at Hermione as at Dom; he'd seen the smug look on his face when he and Harry had walked in on them, he'd WANTED them to see them. It had taken all his strength and self-control not to tackle the bastard and wipe that stupid smug look right off his pretty boy face. Of course he would never admit this to anyone, especially not Harry. He had to constantly remind himself that she was completely off limits since Harry was and had been in love with her for Merlin knows how long. Although that didn't stop him from running into his room last night, magically locking his door and putting a silencing spell up so Harry wouldn't hear him trashing his room in anger and frustration as he too kept remembering Hermione's lips on Dominic's.

No, instead of confessing to one of his closest friends that he too was viving for the attention of the witch he was in love with, he simply said nothing and just took another sip of his coffee.

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><p>Hermione woke up that day around noon, which was highly unusual for her but given everything that had happened just the day before, it wasn't too surprising.<p>

She got out of bed and walked downstairs, hoping to find Harry and talk to him about everything that happened. To her surprise and dismay, she was alone; Harry and Draco were nowhere to be found. When she checked the guest rooms she realized that they had not come back last night so they must have spent the night at a hotel or wherever they'd apparated to.

She sighed sadly, the whole situation was almost enough to want to make her call Dominic and ask him to come over…ALMOST. Her phone was still right where she'd left it last night; on the floor next to the wall it had been thrown against and that's where it would stay for many more hours. So instead of calling Dominic, she made herself something to eat, sat down on her couch and watched the entire first season of Downton Abbey and seasons 1-4 of Gossip Girl on Netflix.

It was now 7pm; Hermione stood on her rooftop terrace with a glass of wine in her hand, thinking about her best friend. Neither Harry nor Draco had come back or even contacted her telling her where they were, at first it was worrying but she kept remembering everything that had happened and decided that it was probably for the best.

Dominic had been trying to reach her all day but Hermione refused to answer his calls, she put up anti apparition wards so he couldn't suddenly pop over again and she'd locked her private elevator so no one could come up without her knowing. She wasn't particularly mad at him, she'd always sort of suspected that he felt something more for her than he led on but she just wasn't really to talk or see him again just yet.

A few hours passed and still no word from Harry or Draco; Hermione was in her room lying on her bed staring blankly up at the ceiling. Her mind was racing, had she really messed up so bad that Harry didn't even want to see her anymore?

It wasn't until around midnight that Hermione heard from them. She was in her study still trying to distract herself so she buried herself in her work when her phone rang. She didn't recognize the number but answered anyways, it was Draco; he and Harry were downstairs and couldn't go up, they'd tried apparating in but instead ended up in front of her private elevator. And when they tried to go up, they found that the elevator was locked; Harry hadn't wanted to call so he gave Draco her number and he called from his phone.

It had hurt Hermione to hear that Harry didn't want to talk to her but she didn't blame him. She unlocked the elevator and texted Draco afterwards. She waited by the stairs for them, hoping to talk to Harry but when the elevator door opened, Harry all but sprinted to his room, not even looking at Hermione.

Draco came out of the elevator, turned to her and simply mouthed "sorry" before also heading to his room, leaving Hermione standing in the middle of her foyer with tears falling down her cheeks.

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><p><strong>So there you have it. Before you ask, no neither Harry nor Draco know that Hermione knows that Harry is in love with her, neither does Dominic. Anywho..don't forget to review! :D<strong>


	6. Vivid dream

**Alright guys to I would have liked to upload more than one new chapter this week as I'm leaving later today but I wasn't able to. And I'm sorry to say that I don't know how long I'll be away, according to mom it's quite possible that we will be away for about three weeks. I will definitely write while I'm away so I can upload once I come back. I hope you enjoy what I've written. :)**

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><p>Hermione stood there for a good five minutes before she finally moved. This had never happened before, granted she and Harry had gotten into their share of arguments over the years but they were never enough to make Harry not want to even look at her. Sniffling, she slowly made her way upstairs to her room where she ended up crying herself to sleep.<p>

The next morning Hermione woke up around 10am, for once she hated all the light that filled her room; she had a horrible headache which she usually got after she cried for a long time. And as much as Hermione loved having days off, never had she wished so much that she had to go into work that week so she could spend her time buried in her work instead of having to figure out the mess her love life had become in just 24 hours. She thought about going downstairs to eat breakfast but decided against it; she didn't think she could stand having Harry blatantly ignore her in her own home.

She got out of bed, took a shower and walked into her closet to pick out what she would wear that day. A few minutes later she walked out in dark boot cut jeans, navy blue TOMS wedges, a white tank top, a black crop top with a white peace sign on it and a long silver link necklace. She walked into her study where she picked up her tote bag, phone and wand before she lifted the anti-apparition wards she'd set up last night, closed her eyes and apparated away.

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><p>Harry woke up at 8am sharp, and this time he knew exactly where he was. He thought about staying in bed all day or getting dressed, apparating outside and spending the whole day around the city but there were flaws in each of his ideas. One, he would have to go out to eat eventually and two, Hermione had anti apparition wards up so he couldn't leave undetected.<p>

No, he decided he'd ignored his feelings long enough so he immediately got out of bed and heading out of his room toward the kitchen hoping to find Hermione. Unfortunately all he found was Draco dressed in a suit, sitting at the kitchen's breakfast bar reading the New York Times drinking coffee.

"Hey, has Hermione come down at all?" asked Harry as he entered the kitchen.

"Nope" was all Draco said from behind his paper.

Needless to say he was disappointed but he couldn't really blame her, especially since he hadn't even bothered to look at her when he and Draco arrived back from Bridgehampton last night.

Harry simply sighed and poured himself a cup of coffee before he sat down next to Draco. He wanted to talk to him about this whole situation but before he could even open his mouth, Draco put down his coffee cup and folded up his paper before getting up.

"Where are you going?" asked Harry.

"To work" he replied simply but decided to elaborate when he saw Harry's confused face, "you're the one who came to spend time with Hermione, not me. I came to seal a business deal remember?"

"Oh…right. Of course" replied Harry.

"I'll be back around two or three, maybe earlier, maybe later depending on how much we get done today" said Draco before turning and walking toward the elevator.

But before he reached the elevator he turned around to face Harry and said "don't spend the day sulking; do what you came to Manhattan to do. Talk to her and tell her how you feel". With that said Draco got into the elevator and left for work, leaving Harry alone with his thoughts.

Harry made himself a simple breakfast, still too stubborn to listen to Draco's advice and ate alone. After he finished he poured another cup of coffee and walked over to the couch where he sat down and put down his cup on the table in front of him. He decided to distract himself so he turned on the TV, saw that Hermione was still signed into Netflix and decided to watch a few movies.

Two hours and one movie later, Harry finally decided that Draco was right; he'd come here to tell Hermione how he felt and that's what he was going to do. He got up off the couch and walked slowly up the stairs to the second level; as he got closer to her bedroom doors he started to second guess himself.

_NO! You're a Gryffindor damn it! Where's all that famous Gryffindor courage?_ _Don't be a wuss and talk to her!_

But as he slowly cracked open Hermione's bedroom door, he peaked in and saw her apparate away with a sad look on her face.

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><p>When Hermione opened her eyes again she found herself looking out at a beautiful view of Manhattan. She had arrived at one of her other homes, while she didn't make 10 million dollars a year as Cosmopolitan's beauty editor she did make a pretty penny, although it wasn't her job at Cosmo that had allowed her to purchase a second penthouse in Manhattan. After the war, the Ministry of Magic gave her, Ron and Harry quite a large amount of money each as a "small" reward for their help in the downfall of Voldemort.<p>

She'd never thought about buying another home and certainly not another home in Manhattan but about a year after she arrived, one of her girlfriends at Cosmo asked her to go house hunting with her as she was finally ready to upgrade from a townhome in Greenwich to a more luxurious home. So one Saturday, she and her friend Ann met at her townhouse in Greenwich for breakfast before they went out to meet her realtor. The penthouse in Chelsea that would eventually become Hermione's second home was the second home the realtor had shown them, it was a bit out of Ann's price range but certainly not out of Hermione's. When Ann finally decided on a classic Park Avenue penthouse, Hermione asked Ann if she didn't mind if SHE purchased the penthouse in Chelsea since Ann had fallen in love with it but couldn't afford it. Of course Ann didn't mind but she made Hermione promise to throw a fabulous party to christen it after she bought it, and Hermione definitely delivered on that promise.

At times Hermione thought it was ridiculous of her to buy another penthouse, especially another one in Manhattan but there just as many times when she thought it was one of the best decisions she'd ever made; this was one of those times.

Very few people knew about this place, mostly co-workers from Cosmo. Not even Dominic knew about this place, he'd known that she'd bought a second place in the city but was never able to extract its exact or even general location from her or anyone that knew about it. This was her safe haven; she could be alone here and sort out her thoughts without the threat of interruption.

She put her tote bag down on the cream colored sectional couch in the living room before she headed upstairs to the rooftop terrace of her penthouse on the 23rd floor of 100 11th avenue. She looked out at the view before her and sighed peacefully; it seemed that no matter what she was going through, the beautiful panoramic views her home had to offer never failed to bring her into a state of calmness and serenity. She still thought about her situation with Harry and Dom but it seemed that now that she was away from both of them, she was able to do it more clearly. She loved both Harry and Dominic but not in a romantic way, yes she'd often wished she felt more for Dominic than just platonic love but she knew that would never change, she just couldn't force herself to love him. As sad as she was to admit it, the same applied to Harry; she loved him very much, they had a connection that they could never have with anyone else, but it wasn't enough. She'd always thought of Harry as a brother, not a lover.

As she continued to stand outside on her terrace and think about her situation she grew hungry and remembered that she'd left her home in Tribeca without eating breakfast. She decided that finding a solution to her love life crisis could wait until after she ate so she headed back inside and walked toward the kitchen to make herself something to eat.

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><p>Draco sat in the board room of the New York branch of Malfoy Industries with his lawyers, the CEO of the company he was dealing with and his team of lawyers. All his energy and focus should have been used on intently listening to the negotiations going on in front of him but no matter how hard he tried, his mind kept going back to Hermione.<p>

Last night, he had what he believed to be the best dream ever, but then berated himself for thinking it was the best dream ever, and for even having the dream in the first place. Draco continued to "look over" the brief as the lawyers continued to talk and he started to remember what had happened in his dream.

In the dream, he and Hermione were at a penthouse but it wasn't the one in Tribeca, this one had even bigger ceilings than her home in Tribeca and the walls were made of glass. It was around sunset and they were out on a beautiful rooftop terrace that looked out over all of Manhattan and the Hudson. They each had a glass of wine in their hands and they were looking out at the view before them, just talking. A few glasses of wine later they were still talking but it seemed that the alcohol had given Draco a bit of courage because as Hermione went on about Merlin knows what; he turned her to face him, pulled her closer to him and kissed her.

His dream self was sure she'd pull away immediately but to his surprise she kissed him back, in fact she was the one that deepened the kiss. He took their wine glasses and put them on the ledge before using his now free hands to pull Hermione even closer and press her against his body.

As they continued to make out, Hermione suddenly started to undo the buttons of his shirt so he started to pull down the straps of the tank top she was wearing. Soon enough both of them were just down to the essentials, he in his boxers and Hermione in her bra and panties.

Draco grabbed her thighs and lifted her up and moved them over to one of the large padded lounge chairs around them. He laid her down and saw the lust in her eyes; if possible it turned him on even more than he already was. He continued to take in the sight of her perfect body before Hermione finally reached up and pulled him down to kiss him again

His hands roamed all around her body as he continued to kiss her. As his hands moved further down he found that her panties were soaked, he moaned into her mouth at the thought of being inside of her. He couldn't stand it anymore; he pulled away and looked at her with lust in his eyes before he took off her bra, pulled down her panties and his boxers.

He got on top of her and positioned himself at her entrance and just as he was finally about to enter her, he heard his name.

"Mr. Malfoy…"

"Mr. Malfoy?"

Draco finally looked up from the brief and found his head lawyer Mark Rhodes, looking at him a bit curiously.

"Are you alright Mr. Malfoy?" asked the lawyer who looked to be in his late 40s.

Draco shook his head, "yes I'm fine Rhodes, just a bit lost in thought" he said.

Rhodes smiled knowingly, "of course, making a big deal such as this must be taxing on the mind."

Draco offered the older man a smile, his mind was a far away as possible from business right now but he would never say that out loud.

"Well we're done for today" said Rhodes "we will pick up where we left off tomorrow, around 11am."

Draco nodded and smiled at Rhodes, "alright then, see you tomorrow Rhodes. Goodbye everyone" he said to Rhodes and the rest of his team of lawyers before he got up and left. He had to keep his right hand in his pocket to conceal his raging hard on at the thought of his dream with Hermione. He continued to walk with his right hand in his pocket and his briefcase in his left hand until he reached the men's room where he walked into a stall to at least position his erection in a way that would at least attempt to hide it until it either went away or he was able to take care of it. Hopefully the former would happen, he couldn't very well waltz into Hermione's penthouse with a hard on and risk having her or worse Harry walking in on him wanking off to the thought of shagging Hermione senseless.

Draco walked out of the restroom stall, it was then that he finally checked his watch; it was already one in the afternoon. He remembered the last time he checked the clock it read 10am and it was right before he started to "look over" the brief, he'd been fantasizing about Hermione for over three hours!

He sighed heavily and shook his head in disappointment at himself; he'd been fantasizing about the woman his friend was in love with! Had he been the old Draco, it wouldn't have mattered to him and gone after her regardless but alas, he was not the old Draco and he would not betray Harry in that way.

He decided to put this behind him; he walked out of the men's room and out of Malfoy Industries. He got into the black sedan that was waiting for him out front; it was about lunch time so he told the driver to head to the nearest Au Bon Pain. It would give him time to cool off (literally) before he went back to Hermione's penthouse. But as the car drove away, his mind kept picturing Hermione writhing under him screaming his name in ecstasy as he continuously thrusted in and out of her.

Draco stifled a groan as the image repeatedly appeared in his mind; this was going to be much harder than he expected, no pun intended.

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><p><strong>So there you have it! I hope you liked it! I will see you all in about three weeks, hopefully sooner :) Take care! I love you all.<strong>


	7. No longer a threat

**I'm back! :D Actually I got back yesterday but I was just so tired and all I wanted to do was fall on my bad and sleep so I obviously didn't have time to upload anything. Anywho Ii hate to say this but I certainly didn't write as much as I would have liked to, surprisingly I was out almost everyday, either hanging out with my family or shopping for materials for the house (I don't think I really told you all WHY I was really going but it had to with building/remodeling my parent's house). But yea...so I didn't write five chapters like I did with The Voice in December but in my defense, I had a whole lot more free time when I was away in December. I'm already starting to ramble so I'll stop now :P I hope you enjoy the chapter :)**

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><p>Dominic walked down the streets of Manhattan on his way to Cosmopolitan Magazine; Hermione had not returned his calls or messages so he decided to go surprise her at work. He arrived at the offices and went straight to Carrie's, Hermione's assistant, desk.<p>

"Hey Carrie" greeted Dom, smiling at her. Carrie Davis was about 5'2", had straight auburn hair that fell a few inches below her shoulders and light brown eyes that always seemed to sparkle. She was a lovely girl and going by how Hermione described her, a great assistant and a very hard worker as well.

"Hello Dom" greeted Carrie warmly, "what brings you here today?"

"I'm actually here looking for Hermione, I haven't been able to reach her so I thought I'd surprise her and take her out to lunch."

Carrie looked at him with an odd expression on her face; it was a mix of surprise and something else.

"Oh" said Carrie "Well, I'm sorry to tell you this Dom but Hermione isn't here; actually she won't be here all week. She took the week off…I thought you knew."

Needless to say Dom was taken aback by the news; Hermione never mentioned taking a week off, she loved her job so why would she take time off? Well then again, knowing her, taking a week off probably only meant working from home to her.

"If you'd like, I could call her from here and tell her that you're looking for her" said Carrie, her voice bringing Dom back to reality.

He smiled warmly at her "Thanks Carrie but I think I'll just head over to her place and see if she's home." Dominic thanked Carrie for telling him about Hermione's sudden vacation before he turned around and walked away.

He knew he'd messed up when he kissed Hermione out of nowhere but he didn't think it would end up with him getting the silent treatment. In the two years that they'd known each other, they'd not once given the other the silent treatment, hell they'd never even gotten into a fight. It was then that he realized just how much he loved Hermione; it was enough to make him decide that it didn't matter if Hermione ended up with someone else romantically as long as she was still his best friend.

Dominic hailed a cab and headed toward Hermione's place to tell her of his sudden revelation and to apologize for kissing her. Hopefully she'd forgive him and things could at least somewhat go back to normal.

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><p>Draco arrived at Hermione's penthouse around 2pm feeling much better; just as he'd hoped his erection finally went away as he was eating lunch so after he finished he felt comfortable going back. He had hoped to find Harry and Hermione sitting on the couch talking like the friends they were but instead he found Harry sitting alone watching <em>Love and Other Disasters <em>on Netflix.

"What the fuck, Harry? I told you not spend the day sulking. I thought you were finally going to talk to Hermione and tell her how you feel, not spend the day watching romantic comedies!"

Harry didn't even flinch at Draco's words; he slowly and calmly turned to face him and replied, "Well that was the plan before I saw her apparate away this morning; I've been alone all day."

This perplexed Draco, "how could she have apparated away when we couldn't apparate in last night? She didn't tell you where she was going?"

"I guess she lifted any anti apparition wards she had up before and she doesn't know that I saw her leave; I guess she didn't want anyone to know where she went. She probably went to spend her day with DOM" spat Harry bitterly.

Just as the words left Harry's mouth, the elevator dinged and the doors slid open. Both Harry and Draco were expecting to find themselves face to face with Hermione but where they should have met chocolate brown eyes, they saw honey.

"What are YOU doing here?" hissed Harry as soon as Dom came into view.

Dominic proceeded cautiously, "umm, I actually came to talk to Hermione; well more like apologize for kissing her out of nowhere without her permission the other night."

Draco shot Harry an 'I told you so' look before he turned to Dom, "So you and Hermione are not a couple?"

"Not in the least" replied Dom "although I will admit that what I feel for her is more than just platonic. But I know she doesn't like me that way, which is why I came to apologize for overstepping our boundaries; she hasn't answered my calls or texts so I thought I could find her here. This is something that needs to be done in person anyways."

Harry and Draco invited Dominic to stay and wait for Hermione there as they didn't know where she was either and hoped that she would show up soon. They started talking and when it became clear to Harry and Draco that Dominic was not after Hermione and therefore no longer a threat, they reassessed him and found out that they got along great with him.

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><p>Hermione sat in her bedroom looking out at the view of the city offered by the 14 foot high window walls in her penthouse. It was now 3pm and not once had she bothered to check her phone, which was still in the living room. She figured all no one would bother trying to contact her as Harry was not speaking to her, Draco had no reason to contact her and Dom would have probably given up already on contacting her. In fact none of them probably even knew that she was gone, they all probably thought she'd simply locked herself away in her bedroom.<p>

She sat on her bed considering whether or not she should spend the night here or if she should go back to her Tribeca penthouse when she got the sudden urge to go grab her phone. She'd just remembered something she had thought of when she was working last night and decided to call her assistant Carrie to put a reminder in her planner before she forgot.

She walked into the living room and took her phone out of her tote bag which was still on the sectional; she unlocked it and was surprised to find that she had 31 missed calls and about 20 text messages. Half of her calls were from Dominic, three were from Carrie and the rest were from none other than Draco. Her text messages were pretty much divided up the same way. She thought about calling Draco or Dom back but decided that they could wait so she called Carrie first.

"Hermione Granger's office, this is Carrie Davis speaking, how may I help you?" came Carrie's soft voice.

"Hey Carrie, its Hermione"

"Oh! I was hoping you'd call back."

"Yeah, sorry about that, I'm at my place in Chelsea and I left my phone in my purse. But the reason I called was because I got an idea last night for next month's issue-"

"That's great Hermione but before we get into work related news I thought you should know that Dominic came looking for you and some guy named Draco Malfoy called like 5 times asking for you too."

Hermione stopped breathing for a bit; so Dom hadn't given up on talking to her but why was Draco looking for her? She suddenly grew sad, Dominic and even Draco were looking for her but not once had Harry called to ask for her.

"Did Draco say why he was looking for me?" asked Hermione.

"Yeah, he said you weren't home when he got back from work so he thought to call here and see if you were at work."

"What did you tell him?"

"I told him that I hadn't seen you today and that you hadn't called either."

"Wha-"

"And I'm sorry if I did something wrong but I told Dom that you'd taken the week off. I thought he knew but he seemed shocked when I told him."

Hermione sighed "Don't worry about it Carrie, I don't mind that he knows. But why did you tell Dom and not Draco?"

"Well Dom came looking for you first and when he looked surprised by the news I thought that maybe I should keep it to myself"

"I appreciate that Carrie but it's no big deal if you tell anyone, Draco is actually staying at my place so he would have found out eventually."

This immediately caught Carrie's attention, "oooh, you have a guy staying with you? Is there something you want to tell me Hermione?"

"NO! He's… an old friend…from school", it felt weird for Hermione to refer to Draco as an old friend when he'd been anything but; then again how else was she going to describe him? She couldn't very well tell Carrie that he had been the bane of her existence during her years at Hogwarts, so 'old friend' was the next best thing.

"I'm sure he is" replied Carrie; even over the phone it was evident that she smiling like the Cheshire cat.

"He is; besides he's more like a guest of a guest."

"Do explain" said Carrie

Hermione went on to explain that Harry had traveled with Draco to Manhattan to visit her while Draco came to negotiate a business deal and had asked her if both he and Draco could stay at her penthouse as they were also likely to leave together. Carrie dropped the idea of her and Draco getting it on as soon as Hermione finished explaining everything; although she didn't really do it willingly. She didn't know who this Draco Malfoy guy was but Carrie could already tell something was going to happen between them.

"Anyways Carrie, other than Dom and Draco, has anyone else called or looked for me?"

"Nope, everyone here knows that you took the week off" replied Carrie "OH! So what was that idea you had for next month's issue?"

Hermione paused for a second…"Damn it! I forgot!" she exclaimed after a few seconds of trying to remember, "fuck. Oh well. I'm sure it'll come to me eventually; when I remember I'll either write it down somewhere or I'll call you back."

"Alright then, is there anything else you need?" asked Carrie.

"Um…no I think that's it. I'll talk to you later Carrie."

"Okay, talk to you later"

Hermione hung up the phone and instead of trying to remember what her idea was; all she could think of was Dom, Draco and Harry.

She decided it was about time she finally talked to Dom and Harry; she needed to tell Dom that it was a mistake for them to have kissed, she loved him but as her best friend. As for Harry, she wasn't sure whether or not she should tell him that she knew that he was in love with her or if she should stay quiet and just wait for him to sort of make the first move. She thought about it long and hard; after roughly half an hour of debating it in her mind, she decided to let Harry make the first move. She still wasn't 100% sure it was the best choice of action but decided to stick with her decision.

Hermione checked the time on her phone, it was now 4pm; she hesitated for a bit but finally she gathered her things and apparated to her Tribeca penthouse.

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><p><strong>So was it as bad as I think it is? I hope not, and if it was, feel free to lie to me and tell it wasn't :P please review! It helps keep the creativity flowing lol<strong>


	8. I'll always be here

**Alright so I know my chapters seem to be getting small but in my defense I've been busy. Mom still hasn't come back yet so I have to do everything around the house including dinner so I just don't have as much time to write as I did with The Voice. Plus writers block comes and goes randomly so honestly I'm surprised I've been able to write more than 1000 words for each chapter. I'd actually already written most of this chapter when I uploaded chapter 7 but it was shorter than it is now and I wanted to write at least a bit more. Enough rambling, I hope you like it :)**

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><p>Draco was lounging on the rooftop terrace, reading. Harry and Dom were still in the living room talking about Merlin knows what; once Harry had found out that Dom was no longer a threat when it came to Hermione, it was like they'd been best friends for years. They talked about everything under the sun and basically told each other their whole life's story and as thrilling Draco had found their incessant chatting, he already knew Harry's life story, he'd been a part of it so he had no desire of hearing of it again so he left the two guys to their little chat and went to the roof to continue reading <em>"Under a War Torn sky"<em>.

He had just finished reading about Henry getting captured as he was climbing the Pyrenees mountains on his way to neutral Spain, when he heard a loud 'pop' behind him that made him jump out of the chair he was sitting in and drop his book. He immediately turned around and saw Hermione trying to stifle a laugh.

"Sorry" she said between escaped giggles "I didn't mean to startle you."

Draco smiled and shook his head, "its fine." He paused for a second, "so…how are you? I was hoping to find you and Harry finally talking when I got home; instead I found him lazing on the couch watching _Love and other Disasters_."

Hermione sighed, "When I woke up this morning, all I could think of was Harry running out of that elevator, not even bothering to send a glance my way. I didn't think I could handle having him just blatantly ignore me in my own home so I decided to spend the day away so he could think peacefully."

He nodded, "Um, I don't know if I should be asking this but…do you know why Harry was so upset?"

Hermione paused for a bit before she walked over to a padded bench under a canopy near the edge of the roof and sat down.

She hesitated again before answering and even then she just nodded slowly. Draco sighed, walked slowly over to her and sat down. He hesitated for a bit before he slowly reached over and put his hand over hers which immediately made her snap her head up but she didn't pull her hand away.

"I know we've never been anything even close to friends but if you'd let me, I would like to be your friend now" said Draco, looking directly into Hermione's eyes.

Hermione could tell that Draco was being sincere; when she looked into his eyes she no longer saw her childhood tormentor, now she saw a completely different man. A man she could trust.

She shifted her body to face him and smiled; "thank you Draco".

They sat there for a good hour and a half or so, talking about everything that had happened in the past couple of days as if they'd never been enemies, of course Draco conveniently left out the part about his very vivid dream.

Hermione told him about finding out that Harry was in love with her and that she loved him too but not in the way he would have liked; after a while Draco finally asked her where she'd spent the day. Hermione told him all about her second penthouse in Chelsea; lucky for him, her phone pinged and she was too distracted to see the shocked look on Draco's face. The place Hermione described was the EXACT same place he'd envisioned in his dream which to him was mind blowing but of course he completely dismissed this because there was absolutely no way his dream would become reality…right?

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><p>Hermione, admittedly, was more than a bit shocked by how much Draco had changed. Back at Hogwarts if she ever looked at him, her eyes immediately went to his eyes and the same was true now but back then his eyes were hard, ice cold and held no emotion other than hate; now they were soft, warm and seemed to hold nothing but kindness, well at least when he looked at her.<p>

She could hardly believe this was all real, never in a million years could she have imagined that she'd be having this sort of heart to heart conversation with DRACO MALFOY. But now that she'd started to slowly get to know him, she was pleasantly surprised to find that they got along perfectly; when she really thought about it, in less than two hours Draco had proven to be a better friend to her than Ron had been in all the years they'd known each other. He listened to her quite intently and offered his advice when he thought appropriate, and it was very sound advice as well.

As they talked, she continuously caught herself stealing glances at him and although she wouldn't dream of telling him this, but she found herself very much attracted to him. And if that wasn't enough, she found that the attraction she felt was more than physical. It seemed like such an insane thought but she could actually see herself being in a relationship with him. Oh Merlin, what was happening to her!

Luckily her phone pinged, pulling her out of her insane train of thought; it was a text from Carrie saying she was heading home for the day but to text or call her if she ended up remembering what her idea had been. She took her time in replying to Carrie as she didn't want to look up at Draco knowing that she would probably start to blush furiously once her eyes met his. Then he would ask why and Hermione would start to fumble with her words because she would be nervous and trying to figure out a decent lie to tell him as to why she was blushing. And of course, she would fail miserably because she's a horrible liar when she was nervous so she pretended that Carrie's text was immensely important so as to avoid Draco's gaze.

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><p>As Dominic got to know Harry better, he decided that he would be more than happy if he and Hermione ended up together; he clearly loved her and knew every single little detail about Hermione that he did, and even more. Yes; if Hermione and Harry became a couple, Dominic would be very happy because to him, Harry seemed like the only man who could take care of her and love her as he would have if he'd been given a chance. Although Hermione already had a very different idea in mind, well more like a different man.<p>

Harry was growing a bit impatient; now that he'd talked to Dominic he was more set in telling Hermione of his true feelings. Unfortunately Hermione was nowhere to be found and according to Draco and Dominic, she hadn't been answering any text messages or calls so it seemed useless trying to contact her. Much to his dismay, all he could do was wait and hope that she would come home soon. Little did he know that she was already home and that right now, HE was the last thing on her mind.

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><p>Hermione and Draco sat talking about her job at Cosmopolitan Magazine when Draco's phone pinged. In all honesty he didn't want to answer or even look at whatever text message he'd gotten, he was too fascinated with Hermione and her life in Manhattan. But soon after he ignored the first ping, came another ping which sounded different because it was the urgent message alert, immediately thinking the worst Draco grabbed his phone out of his pocket. Both the regular and urgent texts were from Harry, which irritated Draco a bit especially since they both asked the same thing: "have you heard from Hermione?"<p>

"What is it?" Came Hermione's voice, making Draco snap his head up.

"It's from Harry" he said simply "he's wondering if I've heard from you."

Hermione sighed, "I guess it's time to face it all isn't it?" she asked.

Draco once again took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly, "I'm afraid so" he said, "but you shouldn't worry so much, Harry will understand. And if he doesn't, which I doubt will happen; you will still have me and Dom as friends, not to mention all of your other friends here in Manhattan."

Although it made Hermione feel immensely better to hear such reassuring words from Draco, it was just as hard for Draco to say them. It wasn't that he didn't mean what he said; it was just that he so desperately wanted to be more than a friend to her, but as he'd grown accustomed to do in the past few days, he said nothing to her. Harry was one of his closest friends and while he knew Hermione didn't love Harry as anything more than a brother, and as much as he already liked her, he wasn't about to risk anything for a woman he was almost certain wanted nothing with him romantically.

Hermione smiled gratefully at Draco before she did something she'd never thought she'd ever do with Draco; she hugged him. Her hug certainly caught Draco by surprise but he recovered quickly and hugged her back. He breathed in her scent and slightly buried his face in her soft curls, he could have stayed like that forever but it seemed Hermione had other plans so she slowly started to pull back, much to Draco's disappointment.

As she pulled back she stopped half way, still holding onto him and smiled at him, "I never thought I would say this but I'm really glad you're here."

To say that Draco was surprised at her words was an understatement; never in a million years could anyone have imagined that Hermione Granger would ever be glad to be in the company of Draco Malfoy. But then again, crazier things have happened.

Draco grinned widely at Hermione's confession and pulled her into another hug.

"I'll always be here" he replied softly to her.

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><p>Harry was starting to grow a bit worried, Hermione still wasn't home yet and she hadn't even bothered to call or text him. Well, he wasn't really all that surprised at the latter, especially when he'd been so cold to her since the Dom incident but he worried nonetheless.<p>

Dom seemed to sense Harry's unease as they continued to converse in the living room waiting for news of Hermione.

"Don't worry" said Dom to Harry "she won't stay away forever. I'm sure she just wanted to get away for a bit and relax. Can you really blame her, considering what we've put her through in just the past few days?"

Harry had to admit that Dom had a point, hell if he was Hermione he wouldn't have come back yet either.

He let out a deep sigh, "Wherever she is, I hope she comes back soon so I can finally tell her how much I love her."

Dom felt a slight bit of pain in his chest as he heard Harry say that, while it was true that he'd decided to give her up because she'd never be really truly happy with him, it still hurt him a bit to imagine him with any other man. But he had to remind himself that as long as she was happy, he would be happy too.

Of course if that were really true, he'd be happy right now because on the rooftop terrace above him and Harry, Hermione was the happiest she'd ever been and it WASN'T because of Harry.

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><p><strong>Like? don't like? Either way please review! It's always helpful to have feedback :)<strong>


	9. Truths, Insults and Kisses

**Alright this is the longest chapter I've written so far (more than twice the length of the last chapter) so I hope that makes up for last time. Hermione and Harry FINALLY talk and if obviously doesn't go as either Harry or Hermione planned. I hope you enjoy it :)**

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><p>Harry was sitting on pins and needles; he just couldn't wait any longer, it seemed that time was passing slower than ever and Hermione was taking forever to come back. He was also wondering about Draco all of a sudden, he hadn't returned either of his messages; had he heard from Hermione and didn't want to tell him?<p>

_Nah, he's probably still just reading on the roof. I'm sure he would have immediately called or texted me if Hermione contacted him, _he thought.

If only he knew.

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><p>Meanwhile, right above a worrying Harry; Hermione and Draco, instead of heading downstairs so Hermione could finally talk to Harry, they continued to talk comfortably on the bench along the edge of the roof. They now each had a glass of chardonnay in their hands; one of Hermione's favorite parts of her rooftop terrace was the built in grilling station, complete with a wine fridge and regular mini fridge. In the two years she'd been her she'd grown used to have some friends and co-workers over during those late lazy summer afternoons. Dom and a few of her other guy friends would work the grill as everyone else enjoyed the food, the view and the wine. This wasn't too far from the norm for Hermione, she was enjoying the wine and the view…the view of Draco that is.<p>

It was insane to think that not too long ago she would have hexed him into oblivion if he even came within twenty feet of her and yet here they were now, sitting on the roof, drinking wine and have a real heart to heart conversation.

She'd forgotten all about talking to Harry until Draco's phone pinged for the third time since she'd returned. Before Draco even pulled out his phone, she already knew who it was from and what it probably said. As much as she would have loved to stay there with Draco, she knew she could keep running away from this. It would hurt her to see Harry's expression as she told him that she didn't and couldn't love him in the way that he would like but it would be better this way, and the sooner she did this the sooner they could move past this and just be friends again.

"It's Harry again isn't it?" she asked, not really needing a reply to know she was right.

"Yeah" was all Draco replied.

She gave a heavy sigh, now it really was time to face it all. Admittedly, she was terrified that Harry would no longer want to talk to her upon hearing that she wasn't interested in being anything more than friends with him, but she knew it was for the best.

Slowly, she got to her feet and set her wine glass on the small decorative table not too far from the bench where she and Draco were sitting. She looked out at the New York skyline against the setting sun, she was so consumed in her thoughts that she didn't even hear or feel Draco coming up and standing close beside her. It wasn't until he caught her hand did she turn her head ever so slightly to face him.

He spoke first, "Stop thinking so much. Harry will always love you, regardless of whether or not you return his romantic feelings. And in case you forgot, even if he distances himself from you, which I highly doubt he will, you won't be alone." He squeezed her hand reassuringly and gave her a small smile which she returned.

"Thank you" she whispered.

"Anytime" he replied back.

With that, she slowly let go of his hand even though her mind screamed out to keep at least that small bit of contact with him, and headed toward the door that opened to the staircase that led downstairs where she knew Harry was undoubtedly waiting for her.

But before she reached the door however, she turned around to face Draco; "Could you come with me?" she asked.

Draco smiled slowly, "of course". He walked toward her and when he caught up to her, she opened the door and together they walked downstairs to the living room.

* * *

><p>Harry was slowly descending into madness; he so desperately wanted for Hermione to come through the elevator so he could apologize for being so cold and finally tell her that he loves her and that he's been in love with her for such a long time.<p>

Both he and Dom continued to look toward the foyer, hoping that their gaze would somehow will the elevator doors to open and reveal Hermione behind them; but of course they had no such luck.

And just as he thought he was finally going to lose it, he heard more than one set of footsteps coming down the staircase that led to the roof. He and Dom looked up at the same time and saw Draco coming down with Hermione who had her arm hooked through his.

A small part of Harry panicked at the sight, could Draco be trying to get with Hermione? He quickly dismissed that thought, Draco was one of his best friends (as odd as that sounded) and he knew how he felt about Hermione and how long he'd loved her. He would never betray him like that…would he?

A fairly larger part of Dominic was fuming at the sight of Hermione so close to Draco. He could have dealt with Hermione being with Harry instead of him but he couldn't stand the thought of her ending up with Draco Malfoy. He'd heard all about how awful he'd been to Hermione at Hogwarts and all the horrid names he called her, Mudblood being the most offensive. In his eyes, Hermione deserved the very best in life and Draco Malfoy was most certainly not the best for her and if it came down to it, he wouldn't hesitate to tell her so.

But before he could voice his disapproval at their sudden closeness, Hermione moved away from him.

She unhooked her arm from Draco's and started to walk towards Harry, much to Dom's relief, but it still didn't stop him from shooting daggers at Draco, who shot them right back at him.

He was brought back to reality when he heard Harry tell Hermione that they needed to talk. Hermione said nothing she only nodded and started walking toward the library as Harry followed quickly behind, leaving Draco and Dominic in the living room, alone.

* * *

><p>Hermione was extremely nervous as she and Harry walked into her library. She felt a pang of guilt when they reached the library and she saw the hopeful look in his eyes as she passed by him to close the doors.<p>

She shut the double doors and put up a silencing spell, she didn't think either Draco or Dominic would even think of eavesdropping on their conversation but she still took that last bit of precaution just in case.

She turned around to face Harry and was about to open her mouth to say something but never go the chance. As soon as she turned around Harry all but pounced on her and crushed her lips to his.

_Damn it, not again_, thought Hermione annoyingly, _do guys really think this whole kiss out of nowhere thing is romantic?_

She'd let it pass when Dom had done it but in the back of her mind she'd secretly been annoyed that he'd just kissed her out of nowhere. Granted she thought of herself as a bit of a romantic but her definition of romance wasn't a guy grabbing you and crushing his lips on yours. She just stood there stiff, frozen with her eyes wide open as Harry continued to attempt to kiss her.

After just a few seconds she couldn't take it anymore, having his lips on hers just felt wrong even if she didn't respond to his kisses. She pushed him away slowly and tried to avoid his eyes knowing they held a feeling of hurt at the fact that she was pushing him away.

"Hermione, I-"he started to say but stopped when Hermione held her hand up.

"Harry, I'm sorry but I can't" she said and again felt bad when she saw the hurt look in his eyes, "I heard your conversation with Draco after you caught me and Dom kissing."

"Hermione, I love you", he said to her, his voice barely above a whisper.

"You know I love you too Harry"; she paused, and felt immensely guilty as she saw a small glimmer of hope in his eyes knowing she was about to crush him, "but not in the way you would want me to" she whispered out.

As she saw his reaction, she felt her heart break a little. It was like handing a small child a new toy and snatching it away from them, seconds later.

"Harry, I DO love you but I'm not in love with you" she blurted out, "You've been my best friend since we were eleven. We've been through so much together and you've always been there for me. But…I love you like a brother and I don't think I could love you like anything more. I'm sorry."

There was a long awkward silence between them; it was Harry who finally broke the silence.

"So that's it then? Are you going to go back to DOM?" he spat bitterly, "I knew he was being too nice, it was probably all an act so I wouldn't smash his face in after you and I 'talked'."

Hermione was taken aback by his response.

"I take it you were with him all day too? The whole looking for you at work thing was just an act? Were you with him at his place making out or were you shagging like rabbits all over Manhattan like the Mudblood whore you are?" he asked glaring at her.

As soon as he said those last words, Hermione was no longer in control of her emotions, she slapped him so hard across the face, she was sure it would leave a mark and it was so loud she figured Draco and Dom heard it even over the silencing spell.

She let the angry tears she didn't know she'd been holding in, fall down her face.

"How DARE you?" she yelled at him "just because I can't love you like you want me to, you automatically assume I'm no better than some cheap slag just looking for a quick shag? And if that wasn't enough you have the nerve to use THAT word? You're supposed to be my best friend Harry!"

She sniffled and bravely wiped away her tears before continuing, "If you must know, I was NOT with Dom! I spent the day alone at my second home, if you don't believe me; I've already told Draco everything so he can back me up. And Dom DID go look for me at work because my assistant called me when I was away and told me!"

She then let out a short and bitter laugh, "Who knew that Draco would have turned out to be a better friend than you?"

This caught Harry's attention, "what are you talking about?" he asked slowly.

"I've been back for a while already" she admitted angrily "I apparated to the roof and found Draco reading. I was honestly going to leave again but he convinced me to stay and finally talk to you. He insisted that you would understand and that you would obviously be disappointed and sad but that you would never stop being my friend. I can now see that he was wrong."

It was then that Harry regretted insulting her and jumping to conclusions. He'd never seen Hermione so angry and it was more than a bit unnerving to be on the receiving end of her fury.

"Hermione-"he immediately tried to take everything back especially that one word, knowing he was in the wrong.

"Leave" said Hermione abruptly, it was one thing for him to ignore her in her own home but she would not have him call her a cheap _Mudblood_ whore in her own home.

"I'm sorry-"he started to say but Hermione once again held up her hand, effectively shutting him up.

"I don't care to hear your apologies Harry. I cannot believe after EVERYTHING we've been through, you would stoop so low because of petty jealousy, now if you'll please leave me alone."

Harry was in shock, he knew he'd fucked up big time but he didn't think it was enough for her to kick her out of her place.

And just as he silently walked past her toward the door, she spoke again, still facing away from him; "I'm not kicking you out. I just need to be alone. I'll be staying at my other place from now on. If you need to reach me you know my number, but honestly I'd rather you relay the message through Draco."

It hurt him to hear that she wouldn't even want to talk to him over the phone but he figured it was karma; he'd pretty much done the same thing to her when he and Draco returned from Bridgehampton.

He simply nodded and gave her a sad smile to which she replied to with a glare. He let out a small sigh and left the library.

* * *

><p>Draco and Dom were still in the living room, still glaring at each other when they finally heard the library doors open. They immediately got up and ran to the foyer; Dom expecting Harry and Hermione to come out holding hands or something before announcing they were now officially a couple, Draco expecting them to at least come out laughing or something like the best friends they were. Instead they saw Harry coming out alone with his head down.<p>

"Harry?" called out Draco; he simply looked up and gave him a sad smile before turning into the hallway that led to his guestroom.

Immediately Draco knew what had happened, well not everything but he knew that Hermione had told him the truth and as expected, Harry was crushed.

Draco thought about going into the library and talking to Hermione to see if she was alright but Dom beat him to the punch and all but ran into the library. So that left Draco to talk to Harry and try to get his side of how things happened.

He slowly made his way to Harry's room and lightly knocked on the door; he heard Harry barely say "come in" and walked inside.

He leaned against the dresser and looked at Harry who was sitting on the edge of his bed, with his head still down.

"What happened?" asked Draco bluntly.

It took a while before harry replied but eventually replied with "I made an ass of myself."

Draco frowned, "care to elaborate on that?"

Harry sighed and ended up recalling the kiss, how he insulted her, how horrible he felt after and how Hermione had decided to leave and spend time at her second home.

Draco pinched the bridge of his nose; honestly…he was the one that was worried about Hermione suddenly not wanting to even talk to him because she didn't feel the same. In fact, she'd been worried about the same thing but in the end Harry drove her away with insults and insinuations. Even to Draco who was just a simple bystander in all this, it was incredibly frustrating.

Draco opened his mouth to scold Harry for his idiotic behavior but before he could do so, Dom burst in and slammed the door behind him.

"What did you do?" he snarled at Harry; all sense of friendship between them clearly gone. "Hermione just told me that she was going to pack her things and stay at her other penthouse. She didn't tell me why but I know YOU had something do with it."

He was about to grab Harry by the collar and slam him against the wall, when Draco intervened; he quickly took out his wand and pointed it directly at Dom.

"Back off" he warned, stepping closer to Dom, "if Hermione didn't tell you what happened she obviously didn't want you to know, and if you don't know then don't go making assumptions."

_Even though you're unfortunately right_, thought Draco angrily.

Dom backed away and moved toward the door again.

"Now, if you'll be so kind as to leave" said Draco menacingly "clearly neither of us wants you here and considering that Hermione didn't even bother to tell you what happened, I don't think she wants you here either."

Dom's eyes turned into narrow slits as he glared at the blond wizard that was threatening him, "this isn't over" hissed Dom, before leaving the room and ultimately leaving the penthouse.

Draco once again opened his mouth to talk to Harry but was again interrupted, this time by his phone. He'd received a voicemail from Hermione asking him to meet her again on the roof but not to tell Harry, as she clearly didn't want to see or talk to him at the moment.

He looked at Harry who had gone back to sitting on his bed with his head down, "I'll be back in a bit Harry, I got a voicemail from one of my lawyers, he wants to talk to me about…something" he said lamely. When Harry said nothing, Draco walked toward the door and left him alone. He thought about taking the staircase hidden by the metal doors in front of him but decided against it, he thought Harry would hear the large metal doors close and decide to follow him. No, instead he walked into his room, put up a silencing charm so Harry wouldn't hear him and apparated to the rooftop terrace.

* * *

><p>Hermione wasn't really sure why she'd asked Draco to meet her, she figured Harry would have filled him in on what had happened in the library but she still wanted to see him before she left. She waited; sitting on the same bench they had occupied together not so long ago and waited for him. Luckily she didn't have to wait long, not even five minutes after she sat down, Draco appeared next to her. She looked at him with a sad smile on her face but made no effort to move from the bench.<p>

When it became evident that Hermione would not be the first to move, Draco walked over, sat down with his body facing toward her and grabbed her hand and held it between both of his.

"I'm sorry" said Draco, surprising Hermione.

She looked at him through her puffy bloodshot eyes; "why are you apologizing? You weren't the one that called me a cheap mudblood whore" she spat out bitterly.

Draco squeezed her hand in sympathy, "I know but I'm sorry you had to go through that. I never thought Harry would do something like that. I mean I knew he would be crushed because he's been in love with you for so long but that was still taking it too far."

"Don't worry about it" she said abruptly "I can take care of myself."

There was silence between them for a while before Hermione spoke again, "I just wanted to talk to you before I left."

There was another pause before she continued, "I take it Harry told you that I would be leaving and staying at my other penthouse?"

Draco simply nodded; he was far from happy that she would be leaving but knew that it was for the best. He said nothing but he was furious at Harry for driving her away and from her own home for fucks sake!

"I don't know when I'll be back" she said slowly "but both you and Harry are still allowed to stay here for the remainder of your trip, I just need to be away from him for a while."

Draco looked at sadly as she turned her head to look out at the now illuminated New York skyline as it was already dark; yet even in the dim light he could see new tears gathering in her eyes. Instinctively he pulled her close to him and wrapped his arms around her as she began to cry silently. In the hopes of calming her down he rubbed circles on her back with one hand and ran the other through her soft curls as he whispered sweet and soothing words into her ear.

After a while Hermione was calm again. She pulled away from Draco and apologized repeatedly after seeing the huge tear and mascara stain she'd left on his shirt, which Draco quickly dismissed and assured her that she had nothing to apologize for.

Hermione looked at her phone to check the time and decided it was time for her to leave. She let out a long sigh and wiped the remaining tears from the corners of her eyes and her cheeks. She stood up and gathered her purse before turning to face Draco who was also now standing.

"Aren't you going to take anything other than your purse with you?' asked Draco with a confused look on his face.

Hermione simply shook her head no; "undetectable extension charm" she explained "everything I need, I have in here."

Draco paused for a while before finally speaking, "where will you go?" he asked softly.

He already knew that she was going to her other penthouse somewhere in Chelsea but he was hoping to get the exact location from her; not for Harry but for himself. He had found that he was growing even more attached and attracted to her; he knew he couldn't stay away now even if he really tried.

Hermione hesitated before answering, "I can't tell you that…not here."

Before Draco could respond Hermione grabbed his hand and turned on her heel. After a few seconds, Draco opened his eyes again and found himself standing next to Hermione, on the same terrace in his dream, staring out at the glittering New York City skyline.

He looked over at Hermione who was holding onto the railing and staring out at the view; even with puffy eyes and mascara stained face, she still looked beautiful.

_I would give anything for her to love me like I love her…wait a minute. LOVE? I Love her? I barely know her! Well we did go to school together for eight years but I hated and insulted her for the majority of those eight years and now I love her?_

Before he could continue his internal argument, Hermione turned to face him and suddenly hugged him, immediately bringing him back to reality. He immediately hugged her close to him, never wanting to let go. He buried his face in her curls, inhaling her scent, she smelled like orchids and lavender. After a few minutes Hermione slowly started to pull back but never fully pulled away, just enough to be able to look at him.

"Now you know where I'll be staying" she whispered.

Draco smiled, "and where exactly are we?"

Hermione pulled away completely and took out her phone and started typing which confused Draco; seconds later his phone pinged, he took it out and saw a new text from Hermione which simply had an address on it.

"This is the address in case you ever want to take a taxi or something here and if you want to apparate just apparate onto the terrace" she said with a small grin on her face before turning serious again "I don't mind if you come visit, in fact I would love it but you can't tell Harry the location or bring him here."

Draco saw how serious she was about this and assured her that he wouldn't reveal the location to Harry or bring him here.

Hermione smiled at him, "thank you" she said.

He smiled right back at her and he could have sworn that he saw her blush slightly. He looked at his phone to check the time, he'd been gone for a while now and he was worried that Harry might look for him.

Reluctantly he told Hermione that he needed to leave before Harry began to look for him if he hadn't already started. Hermione nodded in agreement but inside she was sad to see him go, a part of her wished that he would stay with her but knew that was not going to happen.

Draco pulled her to him once again and hugged her tightly; he wanted to inhale as much of her scent as he could because he didn't know when he'd see her again. As he pulled away he threw caution to the wind and pressed his lips to Hermione's.

She'd absolutely hated it when Dom and Harry kissed her out of nowhere but when Draco did it, one single thought resonated though her mind: _It's about Fucking time!_

For once she stopped thinking and just acted, she returned his kiss with as much desire as he poured into his and instinctively locked her hands behind his neck and pulled him closer to her causing him to moan out. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her even closer to him, this time bringing a moan out of her as she felt him grow hard against her.

Just as Draco was about to deepen the kiss, his phone rang; _for fucks sake! Who's calling at this hour?_ , he thought angrily.

It was Harry.

"Fuck" said Hermione and Draco in unison causing them to laugh a bit before Draco finally answered.

"Where are you?" asked Harry in a dull emotionless voice.

"With my lawyer" replied Draco immediately "he was looking over the business papers and thought he found something odd so he wanted to run them by me before the meeting tomorrow. It was nothing big though" he added quickly "I'm leaving right after this."

"Alright" replied Harry "oh hey, since you're out already, do you mind picking up some take out or something? I'm starving and I don't really have the energy to make anything."

"Sure" returned Draco "I'll see you in a bit" he said before hanging up.

He and Hermione let out a huge sigh of relief, they knew there was no way of Harry knowing that they were together but the thought scared them both a bit.

Draco turned to face Hermione, "I have to go" he said, not really knowing what else to say. He wasn't going to apologize for kissing her because he wasn't sorry and honestly he didn't think she was sorry either.

Hermione gave him a small nod and just as Draco was about to apparate away, Hermione stopped him and pulled him into another passionate kiss. It took all of Draco's will power to pull away; when he finally did he rested his forehead against Hermione as they were both trying to catch their breath.

"This isn't over" said Hermione breathlessly with a smirk on her face, all trace of her fight with Harry gone.

Draco smirked before capturing her lips once more before he left, "of course it's not darling" he replied to her before turning on his heel and apparating away.

* * *

><p><strong>Finally some real Dramione interaction! :P I know some of you wanted me to get more into the Dramione part of the story but I felt the need to set some other things up first. Anyway...did you like it? Please review!<strong>


	10. No regrets

**Hi guys! Okay I know I'm horrible for not uploading in MONTHS but things have been rather crazy around here. I can't promise that I will update as regularly as I did with The Voice but I will try my hardest to upload at least once every two weeks if not sooner. Anywho this is far from my best chapter but I didn't want to keep you guys waiting any more so I sort of just made due, of course if you read The Voice, you know that I am my own worst critic so yea. I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

><p>Hermione stood on the terrace, still staring out at the illuminated skyline, going over the day's events in her mind. She still couldn't believe that she had kissed Draco Malfoy and that he'd kissed her back, then again that still seemed more believable than Harry calling her a mudblood whore. She scowled at the memory of the words slipping out of Harry's mouth; had he just called her a whore she still would have slapped him and maybe she would have felt a bit of remorse for having struck her best friend. But he hadn't done that; he'd taken it much further by just using that one extra word and she didn't think she could forgive him for it, at least not yet.<p>

It was late and even though she didn't have to get up early for work, she figured it was about time she went to bed. She grabbed her purse and finally headed inside her home.

* * *

><p>As Draco and Harry sat next to each other in the living room, eating Chinese take-out and watching old episodes of Saturday Night Live on Netflix that Hermione had in her instant queue, Draco tried everything possible to avoid looking Harry in the eyes. He didn't regret kissing Hermione but that didn't mean he wanted Harry to find out, at least not until he knew where this was all going.<p>

_Oh Merlin, I sound like a fucking girl! "Where is this going?" What the fuck? If it were any other girl I'd just shag her and be done with it instead of worrying about the meaning of one kiss, well multiple kiss but that's beside the point! Then again, Hermione isn't just another girl. UGH! Harry is one of my best friends and he'd fucking kill me if he found out I was making a move for the girl he's been in love with since for-fucking-ever._

Guilt immediately engulfed Draco, not just because he'd kissed Hermione and enjoyed it, but also because SHE had enjoyed it and it all had to have happened not even an hour after she'd crushed any and all hope Harry had of being with her. Of all the gorgeous witches in the wizarding world (half of which shamelessly paraded themselves in front of him hoping to peak his interest, most of which didn't), why did he have to start falling for Hermione Granger? Maybe the universe decided that he hadn't yet paid enough for the horrid things he'd done in his life so it decided to fuck with his love life in the most ironic way possible, and the worst part was that it was working.

"Draco?"

He was brought back to reality by Harry's hand as it was waved continuously in front of his face.

"Huh?" was all he managed to say as he turned to face Harry.

"You alright? You've been staring at your noodles for like fifteen minutes. Is there a dead fly in there or what?"

"Sorry, it's just that I've been thinking about the business deal" lied Draco. In fact business was the last thing on his mind, but he certainly wasn't going to tell Harry that. Instead he continued to eat his noodles and stare at the TV, pretending to actually pay attention as Jane Lynch hosted SNL.

* * *

><p>Dom was pacing back in forth in his massive bedroom trying to make sense of what had happened tonight.<p>

Granted, he knew he'd overreacted when he busted into Harry's room accusing him of driving Hermione away but that didn't mean he believed that he had nothing to do with it. In the time he'd known Hermione he knew that for her to run away like that, someone had to either piss her off immensely or hurt her deeply. If he had to guess, Harry had probably managed to do both while they were in the library.

He let out a frustrated groan; this was not the way things were supposed to happen! Suddenly he remembered Hermione walking down the stairs with her arm hooked through Draco's and started to feel angry again. He wasn't quite sure why but his blood began to boil whenever he thought of them together in any way.

It was then that he changed his mind, yet again, in regards to Hermione. It had become clear over the course of the night that Hermione would not end up with Harry because she either didn't love him romantically or he completely fucked up…or maybe both. But for whatever reason, it was clear that Harry was out and just by the vibe that he got from Draco over the few times they'd even been in the same room, he figured that Draco also had a thing for Hermione and he would be damned if she ended up with someone like Draco Malfoy.

Dom was back in the competition for Hermione's love, he was going to go all out for Hermione and he was going to make damn sure that this would be one competition where only he would be found victorious…no matter what he had to do to win.

* * *

><p>The next morning Hermione woke up feeling much better but she was still nowhere near ready to see or even hear from Harry yet. Draco on the other hand…<p>

_What the hell is wrong with me? Why is he on my mind all the time? Yes, the kisses were amazing but we barely know each other. We may have gone to school together but I don't really know the real him and he's barely starting to get to know the real me. _

She shook her head; it was way too early to be thinking about this, she hadn't even had her coffee yet! She stretched her arms above her head before she pulled off the covers, slipped her feet into her favorite slippers and walked out of her bedroom, toward the kitchen.

As she walked through her penthouse, her mind kept returning to last night on her terrace with Draco. Never in a million years would she have imagined something like that happening; when she was at Hogwarts and someone had told her this was going to happen, she would've had them committed to St Mungo's.

_Damn it, I really need to stop thinking about this, I'm already confused enough as it is with Harry and Dom, adding Draco to the mix just messes things up even more._

But the truth was, she wasn't really confused…not about her feelings anyways. It was clear that she only loved Harry like a brother even though now she couldn't even look at his pictures without getting mad. As for Dom, she loved him very much and she wouldn't deny that he was absolutely gorgeous but she just couldn't see herself with him as a couple. Now Draco…well how would she even begin to describe how she felt with Draco? Obviously there was an immense physical attraction between them but she knew she felt something more for him, she just couldn't describe it.

As soon as she reached the kitchen she poured herself a huge cup of coffee, when she finished preparing her coffee she grabbed her mug and walked out onto the terrace.

It was only late August but being in the northeast, the mornings and most evenings already brought with them a bit of a chill. It didn't bother Hermione though; she loved cool weather and couldn't wait for autumn to officially begin as it was her favorite season.

She stood near the edge and set her coffee down on the ledge as she took in the breathtaking view. She inhaled deeply and let out a huge breath, feeling as though her problems no longer existed.

It was still early as the sun was barely rising behind New York's multiple skyscrapers and Hermione let her mind wander freely as she continued to admire the view. And try as she might, her mind kept going back to the previous night's events, not to Harry and his cruel words but to the mind blowing kiss she'd shared with Draco. She scowled and berated herself for continuing to think about him but she couldn't stop; as she looked at the view before her, she couldn't' help but wonder if he was awake already.

Again she started to grow angry with herself for not having more self-control, she was acting like a school girl with her first boyfriend, constantly thinking about him and what he was doing. It was pathetic! Enough was enough, Hermione decided she needed to distract herself and what better place to do that than Manhattan?

The day was barely starting but she was already beginning to plan her day; she finished her coffee and headed back inside to make herself a bit of breakfast. After her breakfast consisting of homemade raspberry crepes, eggs benedict and a fresh fruit smoothie, Hermione headed to her master bathroom to take a long relaxing shower before getting ready.

* * *

><p>Draco woke up feeling horrible; all night he dreamt about fucking Hermione all over her Chelsea penthouse only to be found by a murderous looking Harry who would have probably killed him had he not woken up.<p>

He now stood in his ensuite bathroom splashing cold water continuously in his face making sure he was wide awake. If the horrid dreams weren't enough to make for a rude awakening, apparently a murderous Harry wasn't enough to slow down his libido as he still woke up with a raging hard on.

It was still much too early, Harry wasn't awake yet but Draco wasn't going to risk leaving his room without taking care of his _problem _first.

Half an hour and a very cold shower later, Draco walked out of his bedroom as quietly as possible and headed for the kitchen to grab some coffee. As he sat in the kitchen drinking his coffee and enjoying a blueberry bagel with cream cheese, he began to make a mental pros and cons list about getting involved with Hermione. To him there seemed to only be one real con: Harry; and that seemed to completely overpower all the pros he'd come up with. He ran his hand through his hair in frustration, this wasn't helping at all.

An hour later, Draco stood in his bedroom picking out something to wear; he didn't have to be at the office until noon but he just couldn't stay here until then. As time had passed, his guilt learned to get the better of him and he often found himself blurting out truths when he felt too guilty. He knew it was bound to happen if he stayed around Harry long enough, he'd blurt out that he'd kissed her (multiple times) and that both of them had very much enjoyed it and that he was slowly and surely falling for the brunette beauty. Which would also inevitable lead to Harry torturing and killing him for betraying him in such a way. Draco shuddered at the thought; yes, he definitely had to avoid spending too much time with Harry.

He finally just picked out a simple pair of dark denim jeans, a hunter green long sleeve shirt and gray converse before leaving his room again. Harry was still asleep and Draco didn't want to wake him so instead he just wrote and left him a note next to the coffee maker saying that he wanted to get some fresh air and that he should be back in time to get ready for work.

With that done, Draco put up a silencing charm on Harry's door and headed towards the elevator and into the streets of Manhattan, not quite sure of where he was heading.

* * *

><p>Hermione stood in her shower with her eyes closed at water fell over her body. No matter what she tried her mind kept going back to last night on the terrace, so finally she stopped fighting it and enjoyed the memories of last night. It had been such a long time since she'd felt this way. In fact the last time she remembered feeling like that was around the time she and Ron first started dating…before she'd found out he had been cheating on her with one of the Patil twins. Of course it felt different with Draco, for some reason she felt as she could trust him and while she didn't even know what that reason was, she knew that he would never do to her what Ron did.<p>

A good twenty minutes later, Hermione stepped out of the shower and wrapped a large cotton towel around her body before walking out toward her bedroom. She walked to her closet and began to piece together her outfit for the day. A few minutes later she came out in a white tank top with a thin orange cardigan on top paired with dark denim jeans and a simple pair of white sandals. She walked over to her standing full length mirror and opened it to reveal a collection of necklaces, bracelets, earrings and rings. She grabbed a long gold necklace with an owl at the end and a simple braided leather bracelet before she closed the mirror and stared at her own reflection. Hermione wasn't the type of girl who would cake on makeup in order to feel beautiful, granted she did have her share of makeup but she usually only put any on when she was going out at night or she would put on a bit of light make up for work. But today, just like many other days, she decided to skip it and simply grabbed her bag, phone and a pair of aviators that sat on top of her dresser before heading out.

As she reached the lobby and headed toward the front doors she was about to ask her doorman to hail her a cab when she saw a cab pull up to the front of her building and out step a particular platinum blonde wearing a long sleeve shirt in the signature Slytherin hunter green and dark jeans.

She smiled to herself; she didn't think Draco would have come to look for her so soon or at all really. This all felt so weird to her, it had been so long since she'd been in a relationship.

_Wait, what am I thinking!? This isn't a relationship! All we've done is make out briefly on my terrace, on what planet does that equal a relationship? I'm getting ahead of myself what if the only reason he came her was to tell me that he'd thought it over and decided that last night was a horrible mistake?_

As she continued her internal argument she didn't notice that Draco had already walked into the building and was now walking toward her.

It took her a few moments but Hermione finally put a stop to her internal argument still not knowing what to make of her and Draco just yet and it was then that she finally noticed the blonde that was only a few steps away from her. One look at him and she suddenly forgot all about figuring out where she and Draco stood; a wide smile spread across her face as he grew closer and practically threw her arms around him as soon as he was within reach. Luckily he returned her hug with as much enthusiasm and chuckled slightly as he buried his face into her hair inhaling her scent.

They held their embrace for a few more seconds before they both pulled back slightly but before Hermione could get a word out, Draco captured her lips to which she happily responded to. A few seconds later Draco pulled back, much to Hermione's dismay, and smiled widely at her.

He wasn't really one to put his feelings out there first with any witch but he just felt different with Hermione so he sighed inwardly and spoke.

"I've missed you; you're all I've thought about since yesterday." He waited anxiously for her reply.

Upon hearing his words, Hermione grinned even wider if that was at all possible.

"I've missed you too! This may sound silly but I thought that maybe you'd regretted last night."

Draco chuckled, "why on earth would I ever regret last night? Last night has been replaying in my mind nonstop since it happened."

Hermione let out a small sigh of relief, she was glad that her worried were unfounded and that Draco felt the same way that she did.

"So what are you doing in Chelsea? Don't you have to go to work today?" asked Hermione.

"I do but I don't have to go in until noon. I was sort of hoping that you and I could just spend some time together and talk."

"I'd like that" replied Hermione with a small smile on her face.

Draco held out his arm through which Hermione looped her own, they walked toward the front doors of her building where Hermione asked her doorman, Sal, to please hail a cab for her and Draco which he happily did. In the time that Hermione had partially lived in her Chelsea penthouse, Sal had come to care for the young woman very much, she reminded him so much of his late wife when she was younger and treated her very much like his own daughter since he'd never had any children of his own. He'd seen her off on many dates in her time there but he'd honestly never seen her quite as happy as she was now with the blonde gentleman at her side. He didn't know who he was but if he could Hermione smile as wide as she was doing now, he hoped for her sake that he stuck around.

As they waited for Sal to hail a cab for them, Hermione and Draco stood just outside her building smiling and laughing as they each offered their own commentary on the people passing by and their choice outfits. They were in the middle of talking about a woman wearing a too tight dress that made her look like a badly wrapped sausage when a cab finally pulled up to the curb.

The two walked towards the cab still laughing and happily holding hands; however their happiness was short lived because out of the cab in front of Hermione's building stepped out none other than Harry and Dominic.

* * *

><p><strong>What did you think? good? not so good? horrible? As always please review tell me what you likeddidn't like because constructive criticism always helps :)**


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